摘要:phase change memory material with intense THz pulse trains from an FEL and observed THz-induced surface changes due to damage as a precursor to ablation and the formation of fine surface undulations whose spatial period is comparable to or slightly smaller than the wavelength of the excitation THz pulses in the material. The formation of undulations as well as the fact that no significant thermal effect was observed below the volume expansion threshold suggests that THz-induced effects mainly contributed to the observed changes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental observation of THz-induced undulations (so-called "LIPSS"), which are of potential importance for laser material processing.