Polarization effects in femtosecond laser induced amorphization of monocrystalline silicon

•We have achieved the amorphization of monocrystalline silicon by femtosecond laser irradiation.•Horizontally polarized laser beam shows an enhancement in amorphization efficiency by a factor of 1.6–1.7 over the circularly polarized laser ablation.•This demonstrates that one can tune the amorphization efficiency through the polarization of irradiation laser.