The manuscript Frank G. Mbieda Ngomegni, Duplex S. Mbieda Petmegni, S. A.
Ouambo Talla,
B. Essimbi Zobo, Ndjakomo Essiane Salome “Pulse and multi-pulse structures in femtosecond
lasers micromachining with multi-photon processes” is devoted to the problem of optical fields
propagation in a mode-locked laser with a saturable nonlinearity. The authors analyze a complex
Ginzburg-Landau equation with the use of numerical simulation and reveal the structures of
multi-pulse patterns, describing the nonlinearity-saturation law.
I cannot recommend this manuscript for publication until the following questions have been
answered:
1. In the first sentence of the Introduction the authors notice some interesting phenomena of
femtosecond lasers interaction with transparent materials, but reference only filamentation
phenomena. However, the spectrum of such phenomena is significantly wider: surface ablation,
microstructuring and cleaning, bulk microstructuring, coherent radiation generation, shock wave
formation, probing of the material state etc. It would be better to add these phenomena to the
Introduction with appropriate references, including reviews and recent papers.
2. The references 4-6 are inappropriate to the text describing multiphoton and avalanche effect.
The authors should mention fundamental works in this field of physics, such as Keldysh (1965).
Sov. Phys. JETP, 20(5), 1307-1314; Holway, Journal of Applied Physics 46, 279 (1975);
Epifanov et al. Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz, 70, 728-737.
3. The reference 10 concerns the few-layered InSe nanosheets and is inappropriate to the text
describing applications of rare-earth doped silica glass materials in microelectronic industry.
4. At the very beginning of the Section 2 the authors mention that laser heat, stored in the
material, excites valence electrons through multi-photon ionization. But this is not so. The
correct physical description concludes in the exciting valence electrons directly by the laser field
through at least two ionization mechanisms: multiphoton and tunnel ionization. The subsequent
dynamics of free electrons results in the material heating, which can be stored with the phonons.
5. The sentence starting with “The basic condition for laser…” in the Section 2 is not clear for
understanding and it is important to reformulate it since the subsequent text is based on this
sentence. Additionally, at the end of this paragraph the part concerning the focusing-defocusing
cycles has a mistake. There is entanglement of the pulse time-dynamics (see “after the plasma
generating by leading portion of the laser …”) and its propagation in space (see “… the strength
of the defocusing lens decreases and the self-focusing starts over again”)
6. The abbreviation CGL emerges for the first time after the eq. 2 and has not any explanation or
comments. Please, give at least an explanation of this abbreviation.
7. The meaning of the variables M and y should be clarified after the Eq. 4.
8. What numerical scheme is used to solve the Eq. 4?
9. Figures 1 and 2 depict the evolution of amplitude a(tau) which depends on the variable tau = t
– vz. Unfortunally, the caption and axes labels contain the variable t, that may lead to mistakes in
understanding these Figures. This relates also to Figures 3-5. Please also accompany the current
text with an explanation why such dependence a(tau) should has a multi-pulse structure.
10. Why does the multi-pulse structure observed in the simulation prove “self-focusing of the
femtosecond laser along its path inside the transparent medium”?
11. Why does the “reduction of pulse-train period is linked to the presence of the saturable
absorber parameter and
the electron-hole radiative recombination parameter”?
12. Why does the average instantaneous frequency depicted in Figure 3 has both positive and
negative values? The frequency of laser radiation can be only positive.
13. Why does the plasma density depicted in Figure 4 has only negative values? What does it
mean? Plasma density is a variable which is measurable in practice and can be only positive.
14. The meaning of the Fig. 6 is unclear. Please, add to the current text description of the Fig. 6
and its physical meaning.
15. Why do you take into account only multiphoton ionization? It is well known the alternative
mechanism of ionization – tunnel ionization.
There are also some minor remarks:
- The wrong word “considerately” is used in the abstract. Perhaps it should be “considerably”
- The wrong word “bread” is used in the Introduction. Perhaps it should be “broad”
- The sentence “this is described by …” in the 1-st Introduction should be started with the
capital letter
- The word “characterized” in the 2-nd paragraph of the Introduction should be changed to
“characterize”
- The sentence “this is frequently seen in practice …” in the Introduction should be started with
the capital letter
- The word “admitting” in the 2-nd paragraph of the Introduction should be changed to
“admission”
- The phrase “two coupled set equations (1) and (2) described … ” in the 2-nd paragraph of the
Introduction should be changed to “set of equations (1) and (2) describe …”
- The sentence “Here, the laser propagation equation … ” in the 3-rd paragraph of the
Introduction has not appropriate verb form
- The sentence “we could also note that …” in the 3-rd paragraph of the Introduction should be
started with the capital letter
- The phrase “To Enrich previous study, in ref.[8, 9] … ” in the 3-rd paragraph of the
Introduction should be changed to “To enrich previous study in ref.[8, 9], …”
- The sentence in the 3-rd paragraph of the Introduction starting with “We found that,” has not
a verb form, but only the adverbial clause.
- The sentences “Sec.3 elaborate one the pulse and multi-pulse structures obtained and
analyzed. and sec.4 outlines the conclusion” in the Introduction should be rephrased into the
correct form.
- The phrase “heat stored” in the Section 2 should be changed to “heat is stored”
- The phrase “After the plasma generating leading portion” in the Section 2 should be changed
to “After the plasma generating by leading portion”. Also the word “portion” should be
changed with the word “part”
- The sentences “with a and phi considered as real functions of tau = t − vz. v stand for the
pulse inverse velocity, and w represent the nonlinear shift of the constant of propagation” in
the Section 2 should be corrected by means of passive voice and verb form. Moreover, there
is need for direct description the mentioned constant of propagation
- The phrase “the first-order coupled nonlinear ordinary differential are obtained …” in the
Section 2 should be changed to “the first-order coupled nonlinear ordinary differential is
obtained…”
- The phrase “we purposed to investigate” in the Section 3 should be changed to “we aim to
investigate”
- The phrase “numerical resolution” in the Section 3 should be changed to “numerical solution”
- The word “schism” in the Section 3 should be changed to “separation” or anything else
- The sentence “this remarkable drastic …” in the Section 3 should be started with the capital
letter
- The sentence “Thus, for each pulse in the soliton crystal of figs. (1) and (2) is an optical
filament …” in the Section 3 should be reformulated to clarify its meaning
- The phrase “an increase of K enhances an increase in the pulse amplitude” in the Section 3
should be reformulated
- The word “liken” in the sentence “This process can be liken to a laser micro-channel” in the
Section 3 perhaps should be changed to “linked”
- The sentence “consequently, these pulses…” in the Section 3 should be started with the
capital letter
- The word “brought” in the Section 3 should be changed to “broad”
- The word “aide” in the Section 3 should be changed to something else
