A simplified predictive model for high-fluence ultra-short pulsed laser ablation of semiconductors and dielectrics

Ultra-short pulsed laser ablation is a very complicated process and a predictive model is very desirable for process design and optimization in practical applications. However, the molecular dynamics or hydrodynamic models, although they are powerful and necessary tools for the study of the fundamental physics, are time-consuming and difficult to apply for practical applications. In this paper, a predictive, simplified and easy to apply model has been developed for high-fluence ultra-short laser ablation of semiconductors and dielectrics. Unlike many other simplified models, this model does not involve any free adjustable variables. The model predictions agree well with experimental measurements for femtosecond laser ablation, while the model is not very applicable for pulse durations more than ∼10 ps.     

纳秒激光烧蚀冲量耦合数值模拟

为研究激光烧蚀靶产生冲量过程和机理, 建立了一个复杂的一维热传导和流体动力学模型. 以空间碎片常见材料Al为例, 用建立的模型数值计算了纳秒脉宽激光烧蚀靶产生的冲量及冲量耦合系数随时间变化情况. 数值结果和已有的实验数据符合的较好. 数值计算表明: 激光脉冲时间内, 靶获得的冲量随时间迅速增加, 在脉冲时间结束后, 冲量变化随时间趋于稳定; 在冲量耦合过程中, 烧蚀等离子体向真空膨胀, 羽流尺度逐渐增大, 同时吸收入射激光能量, 导致激光与靶耦合的能量降低. 关键词： 激光烧蚀 冲量耦合 等离子体     

Noble metal nanoparticles produced by nanosecond laser ablation

Silver and gold thin films were deposited by pulsed laser ablation in a controlled Ar atmosphere at pressures between 10 and 100 Pa. Different morphologies, ranging from isolated nanoparticle arrays up to nanostructured thin films were observed. Fast imaging of the plasma allowed deducing the expansion dynamics of the ablated plume. Plasma velocity and volume were used together with the measured average ablated mass per pulse as input parameters in a model to estimate the average size of nanoparticles grown in the plume. The nanoparticle size is expected to decrease from 4 nm down to 1 nm with decreasing Ar pressure between 100 and 10 Pa: this was confirmed by transmission electron micrographs which indicate a reduced dispersion of particle size over narrow size ranges. The production of substrates for surface enhanced Raman scattering whose performances critically depend on nanoparticle size, shape, and structure is discussed.     

Early stage optical emission in nanosecond laser ablation

This paper describes the results of an experimental and theoretical investigation of the physical origin of the visible continuum emission usually observed in the early stages of nanosecond laser ablation of solid materials. It has been suggested, but not confirmed that the continuum is due to radiative recombination and bremsstrahlung emission. Time and space-resolved emission spectroscopy with an absolutely calibrated spectrometer was used to study the spectral emission in laser ablation of zinc in vacuum at 4.1 J?cm^?2 using a 8 ns, 1064 nm laser pulse. By modelling the spectral emission with a spectral synthesis code, it has been shown that the continuum emission is primarily due to bound-bound transitions between strongly Stark broadened energy levels. Similarly, it can be concluded that the optical absorption is primarily due to bound-bound transitions.     

A model of laser ablation with temperature-dependent material properties,vaporization, phase explosion and plasma shielding

Laser ablation of metals using nanosecond pulses occurs mainly due to vaporization. However, at high fluences, when the target is heated close to its critical temperature, phase explosion also occurs due to homogeneous nucleation. Due to a wide variation in target temperature, the material properties also show a considerable variation. In this paper, a model of laser ablation is presented that considers vaporization and phase explosion as mechanisms of material removal and also accounts for the variation in material properties up to critical temperature using some general and empirical theories. In addition, plasma shielding due to inverse bremsstrahlung and photo-ionization is considered. The model predicts accurately (within 5 %) the phase explosion threshold fluence of Al. The predictions of ablation depth by the model are in reasonable agreement with experimental measurements at low fluences. Whereas, the degree of error marginally increases at high laser fluences.     

Femtosecond,picosecond and nanosecond laser ablation of solids

Laser ablation of solid targets by 0.2–5000 ps Ti: Sapphire laser pulses is studied. Theoretical models and qualitative explanations of experimental results are presented. Advantages of femtosecond lasers for precise material processing are discussed and demonstrated.     

Model and computer simulation of nanosecond laser material ablation

A computer model to simulate the evolution of parameters describing laser ablation processes was developed. The absorbed laser energy, the heat diffusion, the phase transformations and the shielding effect of the ablated material were taken into account. The temporal development of the ablated volume, pore depth and extension of the melt zone were calculated for single pulses of 500, 100, 20, 5 and 1 ns. Simulations were performed for pulse energies of 50 J and spot diameters of 10 m. From temporal evolution curves of the ablated volumes, the stoppage of the ablation process was evidenced before the end of the processing pulse. Comments with respect to optimal pulse duration (in the ns regime) are also formulated. PACS 81.40.Wx     

Chemical analysis of products obtained by nanosecond laser ablation

The chemical analysis of a laser jet was performed with a combination of laser back mass transfer and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It was revealed that, as compared to the source material, films deposited from the jet under laser mass transfer in air show increased oxidizability and changed chemical composition.     

Fabrication of black multicrystalline silicon surface by nanosecond laser ablation

The optimal regimes for uniform texturing of a multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) surface by pulsed laser radiation have been determined. The morphology and reflectance spectra of the texturized mc-Si have been studied. The laser-texturized mc-Si samples with reflectance of 2?C3% over a wide spectral region have been produced. The influence of subsequent chemical etching on the reflective properties of the texturized surface has been analyzed.     

Periodic patterning of silicon by direct nanosecond laser interference ablation

The production of periodic structures in silicon wafers by four-beam is presented. Because laser interference ablation is a single-step and cost-effective process, there is a great technological interest in the fabrication of these structures for their use as antireflection surfaces. Three different laser fluences are used to modify the silicon surface (0.8 J cm⁻², 1.3 J cm⁻², 2.0 J cm⁻²) creating bumps in the rim of the irradiated area. Laser induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS), in particular micro and nano-ripples, are also observed. Measurements of the reflectivity show a decrease in the reflectance for the samples processed with a laser fluence of 2.0 J cm⁻², probably caused by the appearance of the nano-ripples in the structured area, while bumps start to deteriorate.     

Modelling chemical kinetics of small clusters after nanosecond laser ablation

Nanoclusters of various materials have recently been obtained by laser ablation. Strong evaporation of a condensed phase caused by laser irradiation is well known to generate an overcooled vapour. Further expansion thereof increases the oversaturation degree and facilitates homogeneous nucleation and cluster growth. To investigate homogeneous nucleation at very high expansion rates attained at nanosecond laser ablation, kinetic equations are applied describing all the possible gas-phase chemical reactions of dissociation and coalescing between small clusters. Additional cooling due to thermal emission by clusters is taken into account. Twenty smallest carbon molecules are considered. The model is applied to nanosecond laser ablation of graphite in vacuum. The resulted vapour molecular composition is characterised by dominating molecules C₃ and C₅ and an exponential drop of heavier clusters concentrations with their mass. The growth of heavier clusters is controlled by the balance between liberating the latent heat of their formation and the energy losses by expansion and thermal emission.     

Thermal model for nanosecond laser sputtering at high fluences

The vaporization effect and the following plasma shielding generated by high-power nanosecond pulsed laser ablation are studied in detail based on the heat flux equation. As an example of Si target, we obtain the time evolution of the calculated surface temperature, ablation rate and ablation depth by solving the heat flow equations using a finite difference method. It can be seen that plasma shielding plays a more important role in the ablation process with time. At the same time, the variation of ablation depth per pulse with laser fluence is performed. Our numerical results are more agreed with the experiment datum than other simulated results. The result shows that the plasma shielding is very important.     

Formation of microtower structures on nanosecond laser ablation of liquid metals

We report the formation of microtower structures, observed on multishot nanosecond laser irradiation of liquid metals (Ga, In, Sn–Pb alloy, Wood’s metal). Ablation in a reactive ambient gas (air, nitrogen, sulfur hexafluoride, nitrogen trifluoride) is shown to lead to a tower-like structure growing on the irradiated surface at a rate of 3–20 μm per pulse depending on laser fluence and the types of metal and ambient gas. The interplay between different processes in the heat-affected zone of the irradiated samples is analyzed, including ablation, thermal expansion, temperature variations of viscosity, surface tension, thermal stresses, capillary effects, and surface chemistry. A clear picture of microtower origin has been established, and qualitative modeling can explain the formation mechanism.     

纳秒激光烧蚀下液态金属表面微结构的形成(英文)

首次发现了在不同保护气体及多脉冲UV-IR激光的照射下,液态金属的微型突起和微结构的形成。测量表明,针对不同的金属和保护气,这种结构的单脉冲生成速率可达(5～20)μm/pulse,形成了长度为1～2 mm,直径约为焦点两倍的单个微型突起。最后,介绍了控制微结构形状的可能性,并讨论了它们的应用潜力。     

纳秒激光烧蚀下液态金属表面微结构的形成

首次发现了在不同保护气体及多脉冲uV—IR激光的照射下,液态金属的微型突起和微结构的形成。测量表明,针对不同的金属和保护气,这种结构的单脉冲生成速率可达（5—20）μm／pulse,形成了长度为1～2mm,直径约为焦点两倍的单个微型突起。最后,介绍了控制微结构形状的可能性,并讨论了它们的应用潜力。     

Spectroscopic studies of sodium nitrate plasma produced by nanosecond laser ablation

We present the optical emission characteristics of the sodium plasma produced at the surface of sodium nitrate (NaNO₃) also known as Chile saltpeter. We used a Q-switched Nd:YAG (Quantel Brilliant) pulsed laser having a pulse duration of 5?ns and 10?Hz repetition rate which is capable of delivering 400?mJ at 1064?nm and 200?mJ at 532?nm. The target material was placed in front of laser beam in air (atmospheric pressure). The experimentally observed line profiles of neutral sodium have been used to extract the electron temperature using the Boltzmann plot method, whereas the electron number density has been determined from the Stark broadening. The electron temperature is calculated by varying the distance from the target surface along the line of propagation of the plasma plume and also by varying the laser irradiance. Besides, we have studied the variation of number density as a function of laser irradiance as well as its variation with the distance from the target surface. It is observed that electron temperature and electron number density increase as the laser irradiance is increased.     

Comparison of nanosecond laser ablation at 1064 and 308 nm wavelength

To study the solid Cu ablation in vacuum, two different laser sources operating at 1064 and 308 nm wavelength are employed at similar values of laser fluences. The infrared laser is a Q-switched Nd:Yag having 9 ns pulse width (INFN-LNS, Catania), while the ultraviolet one is a XeCl excimer having 20 ns pulse width (INFN-LEA, Lecce). Both experiments produced a narrow angular distribution of the ejected material along the normal to the target surface. The ablation showed a threshold laser power density, of about 7 and 3 J/cm² at 1064 and 308 nm, respectively, below which the ablation effect was negligible. The laser interaction produces a plasma at the target surface, which expands very fast in the vacuum chamber. Time-of-flight (TOF) measurements of the ion emission indicated an average ion velocity of the order of 4.7×10⁴ and 2.3×10⁴ m/s for the infrared and ultraviolet radiation, respectively. We also estimated approximately the corresponding temperature of the plasma from which ions originated, i.e. about 10⁶ and 10⁵ K for IR and UV wavelength, respectively. A discussion of the analysis of the ablation mechanism is presented. At the used laser power densities the produced Cu ions showed ionisation states between 1+ and 5+ in both cases.     

纳秒脉冲激光沉积薄膜过程中的烧蚀特性研究

研究了高能短脉冲激光薄膜制备的整个烧蚀过程.首先建立了基于超热理论的烧蚀模型，然 后利用较为符合实际的高斯分布表示脉冲激光输入能量密度，给出了考虑蒸发效应不同阶段 的烧蚀状态方程.结合适当的边界条件，以Si靶材为例，利用有限差分法得到了靶材在各个 阶段温度随时间和烧蚀深度的演化分布规律及表面蒸发速度与烧蚀深度在不同激光辐照强度 下随时间的演化规律.结果表明，在脉冲激光辐照阶段，靶材表面的蒸发效应使得靶材表面 温度上升显著放缓；在激光辐照强度接近相爆炸能量阈值时，蒸发速度与蒸发厚度的变化由 于逆流现象将显著放缓.还得到了考虑了熔融弛豫时间及蒸发效应的固-液界面随时间的演化 方程，这一结论较先前工作更具有普适性. 关键词： 脉冲激光烧蚀 热流方程 温度演化 有限差分法