Abstract
The material emitted from a target surface during laser ablation generates a net thrust (propulsion) in the opposite direction. The momentum generation efficiency of this laser-driven propulsion is given by the mechanical coupling coefficient (${C_{\rm{m}}}$). In this work, we considered nanosecond UV laser ablation of the aluminum 6061 alloy to study the ${C_{\rm{m}}}$ behavior with different irradiating conditions. This is done by systematically changing fluence, uniform/nonuniform intensity, and incident angle of the laser beam. In particular, we found that when dealing with nonuniform laser intensity, characterizing ${C_{\rm{m}}}$ exclusively in terms of fluence is not fully satisfactory because the energy distribution over the irradiated area plays a key role in the way material is removed—interplay between vaporization and phase explosion—and thrust is generated.
© 2021 Optical Society of America
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