Aspects and recent development of numerical modeling of laser ablation and laser plume expansion

摘要

The paper addresses different aspects of the numerical modeling of laser ablation. In particular, the advantages of microscopic and macroscopic numerical approaches are underlined for specific parts of the complex laser ablation process. Multi-scale, or hybrid models combining different methods are shown to provide most promising results. These models permit not only to diminish considerably the calculation time, but also to perform more realistic calculations facilitating the interpretation of experimental results. Numerical results are presented for the cases of both nanosecond and femtosecond laser pulses under conditions typical for such applications as reactive laser ablation and laser-induced plasma spectroscopy. Several experimentally observed physical phenomena taking place during laser plume formation and expansion are visualized and are explained by using the proposed combined models.