Effect of ambient air pressure on debris redeposition during laser ablation of glass

The effect of ambient air pressure on the redeposition of debris, ablated from the zinc borosilicate glass target using 6 ns, 266 nm laser pulses, has been studied for incident fluences of 3-18 J/cm2. Measurements were carried out in air at pressures ranging from 10-750 Torr. Scanning electron microscopy and optical microscope observations of the target surface were made to analyze the morphology of the redeposited debris. It was found that for higher values of the laser fluence and ambient pressure, the target surface is extremely rough, with large pieces of molten glass and debris fragments deposited near and around the ablation site. The profile of the redeposited debris also shows signs of a strong shock-wave-cleaning effect and possibly a Rayleigh-Taylor instability at higher pressures. Contrary to this, under low-pressure environment the surface of the redeposited debris is cleaner and smoother, with minimal damage around the ablated crater. The measured radius of the debris field was found to be proportional to the inverse cube root of the ambient pressure, consistent with the stagnation distance of the expansion plume when energy balance with the displaced air is considered. In addition to this, the mass of the redeposited debris was estimated from the measured optical thickness of the film and compared to the ablated mass. In the range below 100 Torr, both the mass of the redeposited debris and the percentage of the ablated mass which was redeposited were found to increase with the increasing fluence and the ambient air pressure