Thermal regimes in optical glass modification by the ultra-short laser pulses

Optical glass heating by the ultra-short laser pulses is studied in a simple analytical model and in direct numerical simulations. Modification of the glass optical properties within a bulk volume is assumed to occur upon a pulse irradiation provided that the volume has been heated above the glass transition temperature. In experiment, chalcogenide glass sample response upon a femtosecond laser pulse irradiation was studied by using the interferometric pump-probe method. Long time-scale variations of the refractive index were found to be in correlation with the results of numerical simulations.