Ablation enhancement of silicon by ultrashort double-pulse laser ablation

In this study, the ultrashort double-pulse ablation of silicon is investigated. An atomistic simulation model is developed to analyze the underlying physics. It is revealed that the double-pulse ablation could significantly increase the ablation rate of silicon, compared with the single pulse ablation with the same total pulse energy, which is totally different from the case of metals. In the long pulse delay range (over 1 ps), the enhancement is caused by the metallic transition of melted silicon with the corresponding absorption efficiency. At ultrashort pulse delay (below 1 ps), the enhancement is due to the electron excitation by the first pulse. The enhancement only occurs at low and moderate laser fluence. The ablation is suppressed at high fluence due to the strong plasma shielding effect. (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.