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Time resolved thermoreflectance imaging with a nanosecond laser is applied to study the transient thermal response of near field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) probes driven by either microsecond (μs) or nanosecond (ns) laser pulses. It is found that when the laser energies are the same, μs and ns laser pulses show similar trend of close to adiabatic heating during the laser pulse and close to conductive cooling after the laser pulse. The peak temperature is almost linear with respect to input laser energy for the energy selected. The peak temperature of the NSOM probe is increased when the aperture size of the probe is smaller and when the incident laser wavelength is shorter. However, compared with μs laser pulses, small physical damages appear around the NSOM aperture, which gradually decreases the optical-thermal energy conversion efficiency in the NSOM probe when ns laser pulses are applied.

A systematic study was conducted to understand the size and shape of nanopatterns generated on selected semiconducting (Si and Ge) and metallic (Cr, Cu, and Ag) targets under different laser pulse durations, laser energies, and number of laser pulses. Based on the experimental results, femtosecond laser pulses, compared with nanosecond laser pulses, provide lower damage thresholds to the targets but higher damage thresholds to the near field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) probes at the wavelength (∼400–410 nm) studied. Furthermore, the resulting nanopatterns showed a significant dependence on the optical properties (i.e., absorption coefficient and surface reflectivity) of the target material. By comparing the obtained experimental results, we conclude that the optical energy transport from the NSOM probe to the target dominates the pattern generation when femtosecond laser is applied to the NSOM system. When nanosecond laser is applied, both the thermal and optical energy transported from the NSOM pr...

By fitting simulation results with experimentally measured trajectories of the shock wave and the vapor∕background gas contact surface, we found that inclusion of ionization energy in the analysis leads to a change in the evolution of the pressure, mass density, electron number density, and temperature of the vapor plume. The contribution of ionization energy to both the plasma and shock wave has been neglected in most studies of laser ablation. Compared to previous simulations, the densities, pressures, and temperatures are lower shortly after the laser pulse ( 50ns). The predicted laser energy conversion ratio also showed about a 20% increase (from 35% to 45%) when the ionization energy is considered. The changes in the evolution of the physical quantities result from the retention of the ionization energy in the vapor plume, which is then gradually transformed to kinetic and thermal energies. When ionization energy...

Laser ablation has proven to be an effective method for generating nanoparticles; particles are produced in the laser induced vapor plume during the cooling stage. To understand the in situ condensation process, a series of time resolved light scattering images was recorded and analyzed. Significant changes in the condensation rate and the shape of the condensed aerosol plume were observed in two background gases, helium and argon. The primary particle shape and size distributions were measured using a transmission electron microscope, a scanning electron microscope, and a differential mobility analyzer. The gas dynamics simulation included nucleation and coagulation within the vapor plume, heat and mass transfer from the vapor plume to the background gas, and heat transfer to the sample. The experimental data and the calculated evolution of the shape of the vapor plume showed the same trend for the spatial distribution of the condensed particles in both background gases. The simulated particle size distr...

Laser ablation of copper with a 4ns laser pulse at 1064nm was studied with a series of synchronized shadowgraph (100fs laser pulses at 400nm) and emission images (spectral line at 515nm). Data were obtained at two laser pulse energies (10 and 30mJ) and in three background gases (He, Ne, and Ar) at atmospheric pressure. The laser energy conversion ratio and the amount of sample vaporized for ablation in each condition were obtained by the theoretical analysis reported in paper I from trajectories of the external shock wave, internal shock wave, and contact surface between the Cu vapor and the background gas. All three quantities were measured from shadowgraph and emission images. The results showed that E, the amount of energy that is absorbed by the copper vapor, decreases as the atomic mass of the background gas increases; and M, the mass of the sample converted into vapor, is almost independent of the background gas [Horn et al., Appl. Surf. Sci. 182, 91 (2001)]. A physical interpretation is given based...

A study of the gas dynamics of the vapor plume generated during laser ablation was conducted including a counterpropagating internal shock wave. The density, pressure, and temperature distributions between the external shock wave front and the sample surface were determined by solving the integrated conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy. The positions of the shock waves and the contact surface (boundary that separates the compressed ambient gas and the vapor plume) were obtained when the incident laser energy that is transferred to the vapor plume and to the background gas, E, and the vaporized sample mass, M, are specified. The values for E and M were obtained from a comparison of the calculated trajectories of the external shock wave and the contact surface with experimental results for a copper sample under different laser fluences. Thus E and M, which are the two dominant parameters for laser ablation and which cannot be measured directly, can be determined. In addition, the internal shock wave propagation within the vapor plume was determined; the interaction of the internal shock wave with the sample may be one of the mechanisms inducing liquid sample ejection during laser ablation.