Probing electron-phonon coupling in metals via observations of ablation plumes produced by two delayed short laser pulses

E. Axente , I.N. Mihailescu , J. Hermann , Tatiana Itina (1)

1 LHC - Laboratoire Hubert Curien

We investigate electron-phonon coupling in metals by analyzing the composition of plumes produced by laser ablation with two delayed short laser pulses. Samples of Ti, Zr, and Hf are chosen since they have similar thermo-physical properties but significant different atomic masses. It is shown that the atomic emission intensity increases with the interpulse delay, whereas the nanoparticle emission intensity decreases. The characteristic time of plume changes is found to depend linearly on the metals' atomic mass. Theoretical considerations suggest that the measured times equal to the characteristic times of electron-lattice relaxation.

Keywords: laser ablation; plasma plume; double pulse; electron-phonon coupling

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]; Chemical and Process Engineering

E. Axente, I.N. Mihailescu, J. Hermann, Tatiana Itina. Probing electron-phonon coupling in metals via observations of ablation plumes produced by two delayed short laser pulses. Applied Physics Letters, 2011, 99, pp.081502. ⟨10.1063/1.3629774⟩. ⟨ujm-00629032⟩