Surface 3D nanostructuring by tightly focused laser pulse: simulations by Lagrangian code and molecular dynamics

There are many important applications in which the ultrashort diffraction-limited and therefore tightly focused laser pulses irradiates metal films mounted on dielectric substrate. Here we present the detailed picture of laser peeling and 3D structure formation of the thin (relative to a depth of a heat affected zone in the bulk targets) gold films on glass substrate. The underlying physics of such diffraction-limited laser peeling was not well understood previously.

Our approach is based on a physical model which takes into consideration the new calculations of the two-temperature (2T) equation of state (2T EoS) and the two-temperature transport coefficients together with the coupling parameter between electron and ion subsystems. The usage of the 2T EoS and the kinetic coefficients is required because absorption of an ultrashort pulse with duration of 10-1000 fs excites electron subsystem of metal and transfers substance into the 2T state with hot electrons (typical electron temperatures 1-3 eV) and much colder ions. It is shown that formation of submicrometer-sized 3D structures is a result of the electron-ion energy transfer, melting, and delamination of film from substrate under combined action of electron and ion pressures, capillary deceleration of the delaminated liquid metal or semiconductor, and ultrafast freezing of molten material. We found that the freezing is going in non-equilibrium regime with strongly overcooled liquid phase. In this case the Stefan approximation is non-applicable because the solidification front speed is limited by the diffusion rate of atoms in the molten material. To solve the problem we have developed the 2T Lagrangian code including all this reach physics in. We also used the high-performance combined Monte- Carlo and molecular dynamics code for simulation of surface 3D nanostructuring at later times after completion of electron-ion relaxation.