The photochemical transformations and nanoclusters formation at the surface of silicates induced by CO/sub 2/ laser radiation

The photochemical transformations caused by continuous CO/sub 2/ laser radiation (10/sup 5/-10/sup 6/ W/cm/sup 2/) at the surface of silicates (nepheline Na[AlSiO/sub 4/], rodonite - CaMn/sub 4/[Si/sub 5/O/sub 15/], zircon - ZrSiO/sub 4/ etc.) have been investigated. The action of laser radiation on these silicates lead also to the creation of silicon and metallic nanoclusters at the irradiated surface. The appearance of such nanoclusters has been confirmed by means of photoluminescence method of investigation of irradiated surface. We suppose that all observed phenomena are connected with the selective breaking of the strong covalent Si-O bonds induced by resonant laser radiation.