A study of ultrafast electron diffusion kinetics in ultrashort-pulse laser ablation of metals

Temperature dependence of the electron diffusion in metallic targets, where the electron--electron collision is the dominant process, is investigated with the help of an extended two-temperature model. In sharp contrast to the low electron temperature case, where only the electron---phonon collisions are commonly considered, the electron diffusion process underlying the high electron temperatures evolves dramatically different in both temporal and spatial domains. Calculated results of the ablation yield at different pulse durations are presented for a copper plate impinged by ultrashort laser pulses with energy fluences ranging from 0.1 J/cm² to 10 J/cm². The excellent agreement between the simulation results and the experimental data indicates the significant role of electron--electron collisions in material ablations using intense ultrashort laser pulses.