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A computer simulation of dynamics of an optical discharge produced in the volume of a transparent dielectric (fused silica) by a focused femtosecond laser pulse was carried out taking into account the possibility of developing small-scale ionization-field instability. The presence of small foreign inclusions in the fused silica was taken into account with the model of a nanodispersed heterogeneous medium by using Maxwell Garnett formulas. The results of the calculations made it possible to reveal the previously unknown physical mechanism that determines the periodicity of the ordered plasma-field structure that is formed in each single breakdown pulse and is the root cause of the ordered volume nanograting formation in dielectric material exposed to a series of repeated pulse. Two main points are decisive in this mechanism: (i) the formation of a thin overcritical plasma layer at the breakdown wave front counter-propagated to the incident laser pulse and (ii) the excitation of the "internal surface plasmon" at this front, resulting in a rapid amplification of the corresponding spatial harmonic of random seed perturbations in the plasma and formation of a contrast structure with a period equal to the wavelength of the surface plasmon (0.7 of the wavelength in dielectric).

The spatiotemporal evolution of the field and plasma in the optical breakdown induced in the volume of transparent dielectric (fused silica) by the focused fs laser pulse is studied under condition of the so-called plasma-resonance-induced ionization instability that results in the deep small-scale periodic modulation of the breakdown plasma parameters in the direction of the laser polarization. In the framework of the model used, the optical electric field was calculated with allowance for the effects influencing both its long-scale structure (the beam focusing accounted for in the given-ray-tube approximation, phase and group delays, and back reflection) and the small-scale one (quasi-static enhancement in the plasma resonance regions). The plasma density evolution is described by the rate equation taking into account the photoionization, avalanche ionization, and ambipolar diffusion. Based on the fulfilled numerical calculations, we have described the main types of the breakdown wave originating in the focal region and have found the laser pulse intensity range where the instability evolving from very small seed perturbations leads to the formation of the contrast subwavelength periodic structure containing the number of the narrow zones with overcritical plasma density and enhanced energy deposition. The latter allows us to consider this structure as underlying the nanograting formation observed experimentally in the fused silica irradiated by series of repeated fs pulses., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

The polarization-response spectrum of the fullerene C60 modeled as a homogeneous spherical plasma shell is calculated in the framework of the hydrodynamic approach allowing for the spatial dispersion caused by the Fermi-distributed valence electrons. The dipole eigenoscillations spectrum of the shell is found to contain a series of plasmons distinguished by the frequency and the radial structure. The first two of them (whose structures for C60 is the subject of discussion up to now) pass to the lower and higher surface plasmons of the plasma shell if its thickness is much larger than Tomas-Fermi length. However, under parameters values corresponding to the C60 molecule, when these lengths are of the same order, both these plasmons (providing the main contribution to the fullerene absorption spectrum) are found to be actually volume ones in their spatial structure, and the frequency of the higher of them becomes larger than the plasma frequency (as with all the higher volume plasmons). The resonance curve of the fullerene absorption cross-section calculated on the basis of the developed model with allowance for the surface losses caused by the reflection of electrons at the shell boundaries agrees satisfactory with the experimental data., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures

The initial stage of the small-scale ionization-induced instability developing inside the fused silica volume exposed to the femtosecond laser pulse is studied as a possible initial cause of the self-organized nanograting formation. We have calculated the spatial spectra of the instability with the electron-hole diffusion taken into account for the first time and have found that it results in the formation of some hybrid (diffusion-wave) 1D structure with the spatial period determined as geometrical mean of the laser wavelength and characteristic diffusion length of the process considered. Near the threshold of the instability this period occurs to be approximately equal to the laser half-wavelength in the silica, close to the one experimentally observed., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure

Surface and volume plasmons excited in a metal cluster by moving electron and corresponding inelastic scattering spectra are studied based on the hydrodynamic approach. Along with the bulk losses traditionally taken into account, the surface and radiative ones are also considered as the physical mechanisms responsible for the plasmon damping. The second and third mechanisms are found to be essential for the surface plasmons and depend very differently on the multipole mode order. The differential equations are obtained which describe the temporal evolution of every particular mode as that one of a linear oscillator excited by the given external force, and the electron energy loss spectra are calculated. The changes in spectrum shape with the impact parameter and with the electron passage time are analyzed and found to be in good enough agreement with the data of scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) experiments. It is shown that, in the general case, a pronounced contribution to the formation of the loss spectrum is given by the both surface and volume plasmons with low and high multipole indices. In particular, at long electron passage time, the integral loss spectrum which is calculated for the free-electron cluster model contains two main peaks: a broad peak from merging of many high-order multipole resonances of the surface plasmons and a narrower peak of nearly the same height from merged volume plasmons excited by the electrons that travel through the central region of the cluster. Comparatively complex dependences of the calculated excitation coefficients and damping constants of various plasmons on the order of the excited multipole result in wide diversity of possible types of the loss spectrum even for the same cluster material and should be taken into account in interpretation of corresponding electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) experiments., Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures