Optical and microstructural studies of femtosecond laser treated amorphous germanium thin coatings

The study of the relaxation mechanism of amorphous germanium after femtosecond laser irradiation is presented in this work. In particular, a thin germanium coating was deposited onto a glass substrate through the electron beam vacuum coating method. The substrate was kept at room temperature during the coating process, which resulted in a deposited layer characterized by an amorphous microstructure, as observed from the X-ray diffraction. The germanium layer was then irradiated with a femtosecond laser at 1030 nm wavelength, while varying the net fluence from 15 J cm −2 to 90 J cm −2 . Moreover, an extended two temperature model was used to extract the electronic and lattice temperature of the laser heated germanium coating, showing a 32 % contribution from heating due to the thermal accumulation effect. The microstructural and morphological studies of the irradiated samples were carried out using θ-2θ X-ray diffraction and high-resolution scanning electron microscopy. From the X-ray diffraction results, it was observed that at higher laser fluence there is an emergence of crystallinity on the germanium layer, with no evidence of oxidation. On the surface, the morphology was observed to evolve to granular sphere, attributed to melting of the material. Finally, an increase in absorbance with laser fluence was observed and the optical band gap of the coating was calculated. • Femtosecond laser irradiation of amorphous germanium thin films results in a crystalline phase at higher net fluences. • Our work demonstrates the potential and viability of amorphous germanium compared to more costly single crystal germanium. • A two-temperature model was used to calculate the transient temperature of the sample and the excited electron plasma during laser irradiation.