Surface charging under pulsed laser ablation of solids and its consequences: studies with a continuum approach

Abstract

Dynamics of electronic excitation, heating and charge-carrier transport in different materials (metals, semiconductors, and dielectrics) under femtosecond pulsed laser irradiation is studied based on a unified continuum model. A simplified drift-diffusion approach is used to model the energy flow into the sample in the first hundreds of femtoseconds of the interaction. The laser-induced charging of the targets is investigated at laser intensities slightly above the material removal threshold. It is demonstrated that, under near-infrared femtosecond irradiation regimes, charging of dielectric surfaces causes a sub-picosecond electrostatic rupture of the superficial layers, alternatively called Coulomb explosion (CE), while this effect is strongly inhibited for metals and semiconductors as a consequence of superior carrier transport properties. Various related aspects concerning the possibility of CE for different irradiation parameters (fluence, wavelength and pulse duration) as well as the limitations of the model are discussed. These include the temporal and spatial dynamics of charge-carrier generation in non-metallic targets and evolution of the optical (reflection and absorption) characteristics. A controversial topic concerning CE probability in laser irradiated semiconductor targets is also a subject of this work.

Femtosecond laser-induced modification at aluminum/diamond interface

“…Such a phenomenon is referred to as laser ablation. 7) It is known that when laser fluence is around the ablation threshold, laserinduced periodic surface structures (LIPSS), also described as "ripples", are formed. 8) Fine ripple structures having periods several times shorter than the wavelength of laser light have been attracting much attention [9][10][11] because their formation cannot be simply attributed to interference between the incident and scattered light at the surface.…”