Thermal ablation of thin gold films irradiated by ultrashort laser pulses

The vaporization process of gold film irradiated by ultrashort-pulsed laser is investigated using the parabolic two-step model and the dual-hyperbolic two-step model. The liquid–vapor interfacial velocity in the vaporization process is obtained by considering the interface energy balance equation and gas kinetics law. Comparisons between the temperature, velocity and location of the interface based on two different models are presented, the results show a great difference between them. In addition, the variation of ablation depth with pulse widths and fluence are also compared. The effects of laser parameters and film thickness on vaporization process are investigated. The relationship between the maximum temperature, velocity of liquid–vapor interface and laser fluence are also studied.