Mechanisms of femtosecond laser ablation of Ni3Al: Molecular dynamics study

Abstract

Detailed knowledge of the physical essence of femtosecond laser and Ni3Al interactions is of great significance for the effective processing of film-cooling holes in Ni3Al-based single crystal superalloy turbine blades. Although attempts have been made to understand the femtosecond laser processing of Ni3Al-based single crystal superalloys via experiments or mesoscopic simulation, several phenomena and material removal mechanisms at the atomic level remain obscure. The information obtained in previous studies cannot be directly related to the femtosecond laser processing of Ni3Al-based single crystal superalloys due to the differing intrinsic properties of materials. In this paper, using TTM-MD, three regimes of material response to femtosecond laser irradiation are identified in simulations with a single pulsed 500 fs laser: melting, photomechanical spallation and phase explosion. Several key physical parameters related to the thermodynamic and dynamic behaviour of Ni3Al are obtained at the atomic level, including the fluence threshold, crystal lattice thermal stability and thermodynamic critical temperature. At low fluence, the material behaviour is characterized by heterogeneous surface melting and homogeneous subsurface melting. Photomechanical spallation occurs at higher fluence, which can be interpreted as void nucleation and growth, microcrack formation and eventual large liquid layer ejection. Under extremely high laser fluence, the material behaviour follows the phase explosion mechanism, forming an ablation plume with a layered structure. The dominant driving force change under different fluences causes the mechanism change. Additionally, an integral visual picture is successfully created based on the key parameters obtained, through which the mechanisms throughout the laser spot are revealed.