Zeosil formation by femtosecond laser irradiation

We report the fabrication of zeosil by exploiting rapid local heating and quenching, under very high induced pressures, when silica is irradiated by femtosecond near IR laser. The release of oxygen indicates that the process is aided by the sudden conversion from a tetrahedral network prior to irradiation to rapid cooling under pressure of lower coordinated silica, an aspect which does not possible in most conventional preparations of glassy materials. Multi-photon absorption allows high localisation of these glass changes.