Transient pump-probe optical reflectivity measurements of the nano/microsecond dynamics of a fully reversible, light-induced, surface-assisted metallization of gallium interfaced with silica are reported. The metallization leads to a considerable increase in the interface's reflectivity when solid a-gallium is on the verge of melting. The reflectivity change was found to be a cumulative effect that grows with light intensity and pulse duration. The reflectivity relaxes back to that of alpha-gallium when the excitation is withdrawn in a time that increases critically at gallium's melting point. The effect is attributed to a non-thermal light-induced structural phase transition.
@article{arxiv.physics/0010017,
title = {Nanosecond dynamics of a gallium mirror's light-induced reflectivity change},
author = {V. Albanis and S. Dhanjal and V. I. Emelyanov and V. A. Fedotov and K. F. MacDonald and P. Petropoulos and D. J. Richardson and N. I. Zheludev},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0010017},
year = {2009}
}