Ablation of benzene from Van Der Waals films with excimer laser pulses at 248 nm

Abstract

UV laser-induced resonant ablation at 248 nm from solid benzene films several micrometers thick was studied by the time-of-flight technique. The broadened and structured time-of-flight distributions observed for the first few laser pulses indicate the formation of species with different masses, e.g. benzene clusters. Chemical effects, e.g. the formation of naphthalene, could only be observed in cases where transient substrate heating cannot be excluded. The benzene monomer ablation prevailing after about 50 laser pulses irradiating the same spot could be described by a modified Maxwellian distribution including a stream velocity.