Viscous liquid expulsion in nanosecond UV laser ablation: From “clean” ablation to nanostructures

This paper reviews recent results on modeling UV nanosecond laser ablation. Particular attention is given to a viscous liquid flow driven by ablation pressure. Based on the analysis of the Navier-Stokes equation, various strongly different manifestations of this phenomenon are explained. These are (i) a “clean” laser ablation, when the laser spot has a clean sharp spot border free of resolidified melt dross; (ii) a new form of material removal in laser ablation, expulsion on a poly(methyl methacrylate) target of long (up to 1 mm) nanofibers with a radius about 150–200 nm to the exterior of the spot under the action of a single pulse of a KrF excimer laser; and (iii) a new method of laser surface nanostructuring, the formation of a surface foam having a structure of micropores interconnected by nanofilaments with diameters of about 100 nm as a result of single-pulse KrF laser ablation of biopolymer films.