Femtosecond laser-induced electronic plasma at metal surface

We develop a theoretical analysis to model plasma initiation at the early stage of femtosecond laser irradiation of metal surfaces. The calculation reveals that there is a threshold intensity for the formation of a microscale electronic plasma at the laser-irradidated metal surface. As the full width at half maximum of a laser pulse increases from 15 to 200 fs, the plasma formation threshold decreases by merely about 20%. The dependence of the threshold intensity on laser pulse width can be attributed to laser-induced surface electron emission, in particular due to the effect of photoelectric effect.