Abstract

During the past several years a number of reports have been published [1-5] suggesting that an ultrafast order-disorder transition can occur within approximately 100 fs when semiconductors (typically Si and GaAs) are irradiated with laser pulses 100 fs or less in duration. The evidence for such transitions was largely based on the observed changes of the optical reflectivity which were shown to be consistent with a transition from a covalent crystalline to a metallic liquid state.

© 1992 The Author(s)