Response of graphene to femtosecond high-intensity laser irradiation

We study the response of graphene to high-intensity 10^11-10^12 Wcm^-2, 50-femtosecond laser pulse excitation. We establish that graphene has a fairly high (~3\times10^12Wcm^-2) single-shot damage threshold. Above this threshold, a single laser pulse cleanly ablates graphene, leaving microscopically defined edges. Below this threshold, we observe laser-induced defect formation that leads to degradation of the lattice over multiple exposures. We identify the lattice modification processes through in-situ Raman microscopy. The effective lifetime of CVD graphene under femtosecond near-IR irradiation and its dependence on laser intensity is determined. These results also define the limits of non-linear applications of graphene in femtosecond high-intensity regime.