Modern physical principles of laser ablation

Physical principles of ablation, that is a phenomenon of fast superficial evaporation of the solid or liquid due to energy deposition into a thin layer near a surface of the specimen, are discussed. The opportunity of studying ablation at a laboratory is directly related to invention of a laser, which is very intensive source of radiation energy. For the first time, the laser ablation was demonstrated by Maiman in 1960 just by using his ruby laser for perforation of a razor blade. Since then there has been demonstrated, that the laser ablation has very complicated physics and can be used for a lot of applications. This fact results from a tremendous variety of laser parameters. Variations of laser intensity in time, radiation spectrum, geometry of specimen irradiation, its chemical composition, etc., result in unique possibility of changing physical parameters of ablation and, hence, its physical features, which allow us to use laser radiation both in science and technology beginning from laser material processing up to high-temperature plasma formation for laser fusion.