ABSTRACT
In this work, we study the characteristics of femtosecond-filament-laser-matter interactions and laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) at a beam-propagation distance up to 55 m. The quantification of the periodicity of filament-induced self-organized surface structures was accomplished by SEM and AFM measurements combined with the use of discrete two-dimensional fast Fourier transform (2D-FFT) analysis, at different filament propagation distances. The results show that the size of the nano-scale surface features increased with ongoing laser filament processing and, further, periodic ripples started to form in the ablation-spot center after irradiation with five spatially overlapping pulses. The effective number of irradiating filament pulses per spot area affected the developing surface texture, with the period of the low spatial frequency LIPSS reducing notably at a high pulse number. The high regularity of the filament-induced ripples was verified by the demonstration of the angle-of-incidence-dependent diffraction of sunlight. This work underlines the potential of long-range femtosecond filamentation for energy delivery at remote distances, with suppressed diffraction and long depth focus, which can be used in biomimetic laser surface engineering and remote-sensing applications.
ABSTRACT
The interaction of ultrashort pulsed laser radiation with intensities of 1013 W cm-2 and above with materials often results in an unexpected high X-ray photon flux. It has been shown so far, on the one hand, that X-ray photon emissions increase proportionally with higher laser power and the accumulated X-ray dose rates can cause serious health risks for the laser operators. On the other hand, there is clear evidence that little variations of the operational conditions can considerably affect the spectral X-ray photon flux and X-ray emissions dose. In order to enhance the knowledge in this field, four ultrashort pulse laser systems for providing different complementary beam characteristics were employed in this study on laser-induced X-ray emissions, including peak intensities between 8 × 1012 Wâcm-2 < I0 < 5.2 × 1016 Wâcm-2, up to 72.2 W average laser power as well as burst/bi-burst processing mode. By the example of AISI 304 stainless steel, it was verified that X-ray emission dose rates as high as HË' (0.07) > 45 mSv h-1 can be produced when low-intensity ultrashort pulses irradiate at a small 1 µm intra-line pulse distance during laser beam scanning and megahertz pulse repetition frequencies. For burst and bi-burst pulses, the second intra-burst pulse was found to significantly enhance the X-ray emission potentially induced by laser pulse and plasma interaction.
ABSTRACT
A pump-probe setup including a Robert-cell-type delay stage is calculated and built in the presented study. The goal is to visualize laser beam material interactions upon highly repetitive ultrashort pulse irradiations by shadowgraph imaging, which makes a valuable contribution to clarify the occurring interaction phenomena in this field. Ultrashort laser pulses (λ=1030nm; τ H =400fs) are irradiated onto a bright-rolled stainless steel metal plate (AISI 316). The high-speed shadowgraph sequences are captured for the time-resolved imaging of plasma and shockwave evolution during material ablation. The captured time frame ranges from the time just before the next pulse irradiates the interaction zone until 2 µs after pulse irradiation. The first part of the experimental study features the shockwave dynamics and evolution of the laser plasma/ablation plume as induced upon single-pulse irradiations. It is shown that the expansion velocity of the shockwave decreases from 10 km/s shortly after pulse irradiation to 6.1 km/s at 41 ns after pulse irradiation. The second part deals with laser pulse trains by irradiating up to 10 pulses at 500 kHz pulse repetition frequency to the substrate. For increasing pulse numbers, the shadowgraphs show a steady increase in height and width of the laser plasma/ablation plume that were measured at 2.4 mm in height and 1.2 mm in width after the 10th pulse.
