Laser Ablation: Effects & Applications

Laser ablation is the process of removing material from a solid (or occasionally liquid) surface by irradiating it with a laser beam. At low laser flux, the material is heated by the absorbed laser energy and evaporates or sublimates. At high laser flux, the material is typically converted to a plasma. Usually, laser ablation refers to removing material with a pulsed laser, but it is possible to ablate material with a continuous wave laser beam if the laser intensity is high enough. This book presents current research in the study of laser ablation from across the globe. Topics discussed herein include double-pulse laser ablation of solid targets in ambient gas; using laser ablation ICP-MS and its potential in sampling archaeological skeletal materials; and numerical modelling of laser-matter interactions.