Laser-induced back-ablation of aluminum thin films using picosecond laser pulses

Experiments were performed to understand laser-induced back-ablation of Al film targets with picosecond laser pulses. Al films deposited on the back surface of BK-7 substrates are ablated by picosecond laser pulses propagating into the Al film through the substrate. The ablated Al plume is transversely probed by a time-delayed, two-color sub-picoseond (500 fs) pulse, and this probe is then used to produce self-referencing interferograms and shadowgraphs of the Al plume in flight. Optical emission from the Al target due to LIBA is directed into a time-integrated grating spectrometer, and a time-integrating CCD camera records images of the Al plume emission. Ablated Al plumes are also redeposited on to receiving substrates. A post-experimental study of the Al target and recollected deposit characteristics was also done using optical microscopy, interferometry, and profilometry. In this high laser intensity regime, laser-induced substrate ionization and damage strongly limits transmitted laser fluence through the substrate above a threshold fluence. The threshold fluence for this ionization-based transmission limit in the substrate is dependent on the duration of the incident pulse. The substrate ionization can be used as a dynamic control of both transmitted spatial pulse profile and ablated Al plume shape. The efficiency of laser energy transfer between the laser pulse incident on the Al film and the ablated Al plume is estimated to be of order 5% and is a weak function of laser pulsewidth. The Al plume is highly directed. Low plume divergence (θdivergence < 5o) shows the ablated plume temperature to be very low at long time delays ( T << 0.5 eV at delays of 255 ns). Spectroscopic observations and calculations indicate that, in early time (t < 100 ps), the Al film region near the substrate/metal interface is at temperatures of order 0.5 eV. Interferograms of Al plumes produced with 0.1 (micro)m films show these plumes to be of high neutral atom density (nn of order 1018 cm-3) and weakly ionized (ne/nn, < 0.001) at long time delays of order 200 ns. Recollections of Al plumes confirm the low plume divergence and demonstrate high material adhesion to the receiving substrate, as well as a higher Al material yield than that of conventional pulsed laser deposition. Al redepositions are also highly conductive at the deposit/substrate interface, suggesting possible applications in selective laser-assisted bonding