Metallic targets ablation by laser plasma production in a vacuum

Abstract

A model of metallic target ablation and metallic plasma production by laser irradiation is reported. The model considers laser energy absorption by the plasma, electron emission from hot targets and ion flux to the target from the plasma as well as an electric sheath produced at the target-plasma interface. The proposed approach takes into account that the plasma, partially shields the laser radiation from the target, and also converts absorbed laser energy to kinetic and potential energies of the charged plasma particles, which they transport not only through the ambient vacuum but also through the electrostatic sheath to the solid surface. Therefore additional plasma heating by the accelerated emitted electrons and target heating caused by bombardment of it by the accelerated ions are considered. A system of equations, including equations for solid heat conduction, plasma generation, and plasma expansion, is solved self-consistently. The results of calculations explain the measured dependencies of ablation yield (μ g/pulse) for Al, Ni, and Ti targets on laser fluence in range of (5–21)J/cm2 published previously by Torrisi et al.