Laser Ablation

Laser ablation and plasma opacity measurements

EUV lasers have been demonstrated as probes of laser ablation rates. Ablated material becomes transparent to EUV radiation and so the EUV transmission enables the thickness of solid material remaining to be measured and hence the rate of laser ablation (see our recent published paper) Alternatively, if a solid target of mainly plastic with a buried layer of material such as 50 nm thick iron is probed by an EUV laser, it is possible to measure the plasma opacity. (see figure 1)

A schematic of an experiment where an EUV laser probes a sample target that has another incident infra-red laser acting to ablate material.
Figure 1. A schematic of an experiment where an EUV laser probes a sample target that has another incident infra-red laser acting to ablate material.