Novel morphologies and non-linear scaling of laser damage in glass by tightly-focused femtosecond pulses.

We examine the relationship between pulse energy and the morphology of damage in glass, produced by a tightly-focused femtosecond pulsed laser. For fluences up to three times that of threshold, an unexpected discontinuity in the scaling of damage size is caused by ejection of rings of material surrounding central damage that appear above a sharp threshold fluence. A mechanism for the production of these structures via thermal expansion and shockwave generation is proposed.