Abstract
Ablation plumes caused by short-pulse laser irradiation provide conditions which are wellsuited to the formation of nanoclusters. The high saturation ratios and presence ofionization lead to extraordinarily high nucleation rates and small critical radii. We haveexplored the homogeneous nucleation and heterogeneous growth of condensatesfrom Si targets expanding into a low-pressure He ambient using a Nd:YAG laserwith a pulse length of 8 ns, wavelength of 532 nm and intensities in the range of5 × 107–5 × 109 W cm−2. Clusters in the range of 5–50 nm have been produced. In the highly dynamic, non-linearregime of short-pulse laser–matter interactions, plume evolution and condensationprocesses are strongly coupled and difficult to predict accurately from modellingalone. Both numerical predictions and experimental results were used to quantifythe competing effects of ionization and supersaturation. The results suggest adominant influence of ionization for nearly all intensities above the ablation threshold.
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