Non-monotonic variation of Au nanoparticle yield during femtosecond/picosecond laser ablation in water

Abstract

Ablative multi-shot preparation of gold nanoparticle hydrosols was carried out by raster-scanning a gold plate in deionized water using focused 1030 nm laser pulses of variable pulse width (0.3–6 ps). The relative nanoparticle yield, correlated with the extinction coefficient of colloidal solutions, exhibited an extraordinary non-monotonic variation versus the laser pulse width, which is explained by the electronic dynamics in gold in the lower limit, and either film water boiling or sub-critical peak laser powers in the upper limit.