Experimentally constrained multidimensional simulation of laser-generated plasmas and its application to UV nanosecond ablation of Se and Te

TL;DR

This study develops a multidimensional simulation framework for laser-generated plasmas, specifically applied to UV nanosecond ablation of selenium and tellurium, and validates it against experimental data to understand plume behavior.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel 2D-axisymmetric adaptive Cartesian Mesh simulation method constrained by experimental data, enabling detailed analysis of long-term plasma dynamics of Se and Te.

Findings

Chalcogen plumes exhibit steeper density gradients than copper.

Ion distributions in Se and Te show central bulges, unlike copper.

Plasma temperatures for Se and Te are higher than copper by over 0.50 eV.

Abstract

We carry out simulations of laser plasmas generated during UV nanosecond pulsed laser ablation of the chalcogens selenium (Se) and tellurium (Te), and compare the results to experiments. We take advantage of a 2D-axisymmetric, adaptive Cartesian Mesh (ACM) framework that enables plume simulations out to centimeter distances over tens of microseconds. Our model and computational technique enable comparison to laser-plasma applications where the long-term behavior of the plume is of primary interest, such as pulsed laser synthesis and modification of materials. An effective plasma absorption term is introduced in the model, allowing the simulation to be constrained by experimental time-of-flight kinetic energy distributions. We show that the effective simulation qualitatively captures the key characteristics of the observed laser plasma, including the effect of laser spot size. Predictions of full-scale experimentally-constrained Se and Te plasmas for 4.0 J/cm$^2$ laser fluence and 1.8 mm$^2$ circular laser spot area show distinct behavior compared to more commonly studied copper (Cu) plumes. The chalcogen plumes have spatial gradients of plasma density that are steeper than those for Cu by up to three orders of magnitude. Their spatial ion distributions have central bulges, in contrast to the edge-only ionization of Cu. For the irradiation conditions explored, the range of plasma temperatures for Se and Te is predicted to be higher than for Cu by more than 0.50 eV.