Femtosecond-laser-induced destruction of boron-nitride nanotubes and boron-nitride doped graphene

Abstract

By means of first principles calculations we studied the intense femtosecond-laser excitation of several boron­ nitride nanotubes and a boron-nitride doped graphene layer up to irradiation levels where these structures disintegrate. We performed molecular dynamics simulations using our in-house Code for Highly excited Valence Electron Systems (CHIVES). For different boron-nitride nanotubes we determined the damage threshold in terms of the electronic temperature and the absorbed energy per atom. We found that all nanotubes studied were destroyed in the first 200 fs after an ultrafast laser excitation heating the electrons to 108 mHa (34103 K). Some tubes also disintegrated at lower electronic temperatures. For the boron-nitride doped graphene we found that at a laser-induced electronic temperature of 100 mHa (31577 K) bonds break and the boron-nitride dimer leaves the structure.