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.

Super Stable Pollution Gas Sensor Based on Functionalized 2D Boron Nitride Nanosheet Materials for High Humidity Environments

“…After the vacuum chamber was loaded, a pressure as low as 10 −6 Torr was reached and the substrate temperature was maintained at 400 • C during deposition. Because the laser-produced plasma deposition contains both ionic and molecular deposition [29,30], the distance between the target material and the substrate is one of the important parameters in the deposition process. In the present experiments, the substrates were placed 4 cm away from the plasma source and the duration of each deposition was around 15 min.…”

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), Part II: Review of Instrumental and Methodological Approaches to Material Analysis and Applications to Different Fields

“…Modeling of laser-induced plasmas continues to be a favorite topic studied in many laboratories. 141,,–174 As stated above, the degree of sophistication reached nowadays in predicting the evolution of the plasma parameters and the excitation-ionization of the target constituents, in addition to their chemical interaction with the environment, has reached a highly sophisticated level.…”

“…The editorial review explains clearly how the theoretical foundations on which plasma science was built were laid down in the 19th century. 170 More recently, Bogaerts et al 174 have given an overview of their own work, carried out in the PLASM-ANT research group of the University of Antwerp, focused on laser ablation, plume expansion, and plasma formation.…”

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“…In addition, the ablation plasma absorbs part of laser Plasma Science and Technology -Basic Fundamentals and Modern Applications energy, and causes the density, temperature, pressure and components in the ablation plasma plume dramatically vary, which has an significant effect on the thrust performance. During the years, the expansion dynamics of pulsed laser generated plasma plume has been widely investigated through experimental and numerical methods [19][20][21][22][23]. Especially, several models have been proposed to describe the expansion of ablation plasma and the formation of plasma in the plume [21].…”

“…During the years, the expansion dynamics of pulsed laser generated plasma plume has been widely investigated through experimental and numerical methods [19][20][21][22][23]. Especially, several models have been proposed to describe the expansion of ablation plasma and the formation of plasma in the plume [21]. Aden et al utilized hydrodynamic equations to describe the plasma expansion, which is called hydrodynamic model [24].…”