Light driven structuring of glasses

Phys. Lett. A 332, 86-92 (2004) Theoretical and experimental evidence of light driven structuring of glasses is presented. We show that light overcomes Coulomb repulsion and effective electron-electron interaction in glasses under strong light pumping becomes attractive. As the result homogenious distribution of trapped electrons gets unstable and macroscopic electron bunches are grown. At different conditions ordered structures with period about 2 microns determined by internal properties of the material are formed These structures were observed in ablation: surface profile after laser treatment reveals ordered pattern corresponding to the light induced electron domains.