The Laser Damage Threshold for Materials and the Relation Between Solid-Melt & Melt-Vapor Interface Velocities

Numerous experiments have demonstrated and analytic theories have predicted that there is a threshold for pulsed laser ablation of a wide range of materials [1]. Optical surface damage threshold is a very complex and important application of high-power lasers. Optical damage may also be considered to be the initial phase of laser ablation. In this work it was determined the time required and the threshold energy of a layer of thickness ? to heat up. We used the Finite Difference method to simulate the process of laser-target interaction in three cases. Namely, the case before melting begins using a continuous wave (c.w) laser source and a pulsed laser source, the case after the first change of state (from solid to melt), and the case after the second change of state (from melt to vapor). And also study the relation between the solid-melt and melt-vapor interface velocities to have a commonsense of the laser ablation process.