Explosive boiling of a metallic glass superheated by nanosecond pulse laser ablation

Abstract

Articles you may be interested inCompressive fracture morphology and mechanism of metallic glass

Cavitation bubble dynamics during pulsed laser ablation of a metallic glass in water

“…Therefore, the maximum laser intensity I max is estimated to be about 4 GW/cm 2 . This value is comparable to the explosive boiling thresholds for some crystalline and glassy metals [14,20,21]. On the edge of the irradiated area, surface ripples can be clearly observed (see Fig.…”

“…2(d)). This ablation pattern is very different from that observed after ablation in air where the thermal ablation dominates [14]. In the present ablation in aqueous environment the confinement of cavitation bubbles induces a more severe explosive boiling of higher-degree superheated target material, leading to a coupled thermo-mechanical ablation.…”

“…This process is theoretically modeled in the present letter, although its experimental evidence is clear [18,23]. Second, the initial evolution of the first bubble is accompanied by the target's ablation in the form of an explosive boiling [14]. But the latter does not significantly affect the former.…”

“…It is noteworthy that inside the initially expanding bubble, and lasting for at least 100 µs, bright high-temperature matter is ejected from the target surface. This indicates that an explosive boiling process has taken place in the Vitreloy 1 glass after the water-confined ns-pulsed laser ablation [14]. The glassy target should have experienced an explosion-like vaporization from its superheated liquid, resulting in a violent ejection of a hightemperature mixture of vapor and droplets.…”

“…This application has remarkably broadened the utilization of metallic glasses as advanced materials [11,12], and on the other hand, allows re-examining the traditional picture of laser-solid interaction [13][14][15]. It is noted that, however, laser ablation of metallic glasses was so far mostly performed in gaseous conditions, with only one exception [16].…”