Laser ablation of gold: Experiment and atomistic simulation

SV Starikov and VV Stegailov and GE Norman and VE Fortov and M Ishino and M Tanaka and N Hasegawa and M Nishikino and T Ohba and T Kaihori and E Ochi and T Imazono and T Kavachi and S Tamotsu and TA Pikuz and IY Skobelev and AY Faenov, JETP LETTERS, 93, 642-647 (2011).

DOI: 10.1134/S0021364011110129

The interaction of radiation of a picosecond X-ray laser (wavelength lambda = 13.9 nm) with targets made of a thick gold film has been studied theoretically and experimentally. It has been shown experimentally that the action of individual X-ray laser pulses with a fluence of F a parts per thousand 21 mJ/cm(2) initiates the nanostructuring of the gold surface. Explicitly taking into account the electron subsystem, we have proposed an atomistic model of ablation that makes it possible to adequately describe the experimental results. The atomistic simulation involves the ion-ion potential depending on the electron temperature T (e) . The use of such a potential makes it possible to take into account an increase in the pressure in the system with increasing T (e) and to reveal two laser ablation mechanisms.

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