Gas-dynamic acceleration of laser-ablation plumes: Hyperthermal particle energies under thermal vaporization

Journal Article · Mon Feb 02 04:00:00 EST 2015 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4907703· OSTI ID:22420286

Morozov, A. A.; Evtushenko, A. B. ^[1]

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1. Kutateladze Institute of Thermophysics, Lavrentyev Ave. 1, Novosibirsk 630090 (Russian Federation)

The expansion of a plume produced by low-fluence laser ablation of graphite in vacuum is investigated experimentally and by direct Monte Carlo simulations in an attempt to explain hyperthermal particle energies for thermally vaporized materials. We demonstrate that the translation energy of neutral particles, ∼2 times higher than classical expectations, is due to two effects, hydrodynamic plume acceleration into the forward direction and kinetic selection of fast particles in the on-axis region. Both effects depend on the collision number within the plume and on the particles internal degrees of freedom. The simulations allow ablation properties to be evaluated, such as ablation rate and surface temperature, based on time-of-flight measurements. Available experimental data on kinetic energies of various laser-produced particles are well described by the presented model.

• OSTI ID: 22420286
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 106; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DEGREES OF FREEDOM
EVAPORATION
GRAPHITE
LASERS
MONTE CARLO METHOD
PLASMA ACCELERATION
SURFACES
TIME-OF-FLIGHT METHOD