Laser-Induced Graphitization of Diamond Under 30 fs Laser Pulse Irradiation.

The degree of laser-induced graphitization from a sp-bonded to a sp-bonded carbon fraction in a single crystal chemical vapor deposited (CVD) diamond under varying fluence of an ultrashort pulsed laser (30 fs, 800 nm, 1 kHz) irradiation has been studied. The tetrahedral CVD sp phase is found to transition to primarily an sp aromatic crystalline graphitic fraction below the critical fluence of 3.9 J/cm, above which predominantly an amorphous carbon is formed.