Heat-affected zone of metals ablated with femtosecond laser pulses

摘要

The melted area is found on the surface ablated by nanosecond and picosecond laser pulses. However, the heat effect is little on the ablated surface in the case of femtosecond laser due to non-thermal ablation process. Heat-affected zone of metallic bulk crystal ablated with femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser pulses is experimentally studied. As a result of XRD (X-ray diffraction) measurements, the XRD peak signal of the area ablated with Ti:sapphire laser becomes smaller than that of the crystalline metal sample. While the crystallinity of the metal sample is crystalline before the laser ablation, the crystallinity in the ablated area is partially changed into the amorphous form. Because the residual pulse energy that is not used for the ablation process remains, leading to the formation of thin layer of melt phase. The melt layer is abruptly cooled down not to be re-crystallized, but to transform into the amorphous form. It is evident that the area ablated with femtosecond laser is changed into the amorphous metal. Additionally XRD measurements and Ar~+ etching are performed alternately to measure the thickness of the amorphous layer. In the case of iron, the thickness is measured to be 1 μm approximately, therefore heat-affected zone is quite small.