Melting of gold by ultrashort laser pulses: advanced two-temperature modeling and comparison with surface damage experiments

The ultrafast-laser-induced solid–liquid phase transition in metals is still not clearly understood and its accurate quantitative description remains a challenge. Here, we systematically investigated, both experimentally and theoretically, the melting of gold by single femto- and picosecond near-inf...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inApplied physics. A, Materials science & processing Vol. 128; no. 7
Main Authors Lizunov, Sergey A., Bulgakov, Alexander V., Campbell, Eleanor E. B., Bulgakova, Nadezhda M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.07.2022
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Ablation
Applied physics
Characterization and Evaluation of Materials
Condensed Matter Physics
Free electrons
Gold
Infrared lasers
Laser damage
Lasers
Liquid phases
Machines
Manufacturing
Materials science
Modelling
Nanotechnology
Optical and Electronic Materials
Phase transitions
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Processes
Radiation damage
Surfaces and Interfaces
Thin Films
Thresholds
Yield point
Damage threshold
Gold
Optical response
Electron–lattice coupling rate
Ultrashort laser pulses
Ballistic electrons
Two-temperature model
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Summary:The ultrafast-laser-induced solid–liquid phase transition in metals is still not clearly understood and its accurate quantitative description remains a challenge. Here, we systematically investigated, both experimentally and theoretically, the melting of gold by single femto- and picosecond near-infrared laser pulses. Two laser systems with wavelengths of 800 and 1030 nm and pulse durations ranging from 124 fs to 7 ps were used, and the damage and ablation thresholds were determined for each irradiation condition. The theoretical analysis was based on two-temperature modeling. Different expressions for the electron–lattice coupling rate and contribution of ballistic electrons were examined. In addition, the number of free electrons involved in the optical response is suggested to be dependent on the laser intensity and the influence of the fraction of involved electrons on the damage threshold was investigated. Only one combination of modelling parameters was able to describe consistently all the measured damage thresholds. Physical arguments are presented to explain the modeling results.
ISSN:0947-8396
1432-0630
DOI:10.1007/s00339-022-05733-4