Computer Simulations of Laser Ablation, Plume Expansion and Plasma Formation

Abstract

An overview is given of different modeling work that has been carried out, and is currently going on in our research group, in the field of modeling for laser ablation (LA). Most emphasis will be put on nanosecond (ns) LA, more specifically describing the laser-solid interaction, leading to heating, melting and vaporization of the target, by a heat conduction model, the expansion of the evaporated plume in vacuum or in a background gas by a set of conservation equations, and the plasma formation in the plume, assuming local thermal equilibrium. Some first results for nanoparticle formation in the expanding plume will be presented as well. Also, the process of target heating in the case of femtosecond (fs) LA will be described by means of a two-temperature model, and phase transitions, more specifically evaporation, will be illustrated by means of molecular dynamics simulations.