Green Wavelength Femtosecond Laser Ablated Copper Surface

Abstract During green wavelength femtosecond laser ablation, d-band electrons are excited to become free and to participate in the absorption process. The increased electron temperature also induces the density of state shift and causes the gap between the d-band and the Fermi level to expand. The d-band electron transition effect during the laser ablation process causes nonlinear absorption, therefore, it should always be considered during simulations of laser-copper interaction.This study used a single femtosecond laser pulse with a wavelength of 515 nm and a pulse duration of 300 fs to ablate copper with fluence 0.7 - 63 J/cm2. The experimental results were compared with the theoretical results, where a modified Drude-critical point model was adopted to simulate the ablation depth. The modified model considered the electron transition effect and a two-temperature model that assumed both the linear and nonlinear absorption effect. Comparison of the experimental and simulated results revealed that the simulated ablation depth obtained using the nonlinear absorption model was consistent with the experimental results.