K. Sokolowskitinten et al., THERMAL AND NONTHERMAL MELTING OF GALLIUM-ARSENIDE AFTER FEMTOSECOND LASER EXCITATION, Physical review. B, Condensed matter, 58(18), 1998, pp. 11805-11808
Thermal- and nonthermal melting in gallium arsenide after femtosecond
laser excitation has been investigated by means of time resolved micro
scopy. Electronic melting within a few hundred femtoseconds is observe
d for rather strong excitation and the data reveal a distinct threshol
d fluence of 150 mJ/cm(2) for this nonthermal process. Below that thre
shold melting occurs on a 100 ps time scale and is of thermal nature.
Using a simple numerical model we describe this type of the phase tran
sition as heterogeneous melting under strongly overheated conditions.
[S0163-1829(98)51142-3].