Open AccessRole of heat accumulation on the incubation effect in multi-shot laser ablation of stainless steel at high repetition rates
Author(s) -
Francesca Di Niso,
Caterina Gaudiuso,
Teresa Sibillano,
Francesco P. Mezzapesa,
Antonio Ancona,
Pietro Mario Lugarà
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.22.012200
Subject(s) - fluence , materials science , ablation , laser , optics , pulse duration , laser ablation , incubation , saturation (graph theory) , pulse (music) , chemistry , physics , detector , engineering , biochemistry , mathematics , combinatorics , aerospace engineering
We study the incubation effect during laser ablation of stainless steel with ultrashort pulses to boost the material removal efficiency at high repetition rates. The multi-shot ablation threshold fluence has been estimated for two pulse durations, 650-fs and 10-ps, in a range of repetition rates from 50 kHz to 1 MHz. Our results show that the threshold fluence decreases with the number of laser pulses N due to damage accumulation mechanisms, as expected. Moreover, approaching the MHz regime, the onset of heat accumulation enhances the incubation effect, which is in turn lower for shorter pulses at repetition rates below 600 kHz. A saturation of the threshold fluence value is shown to occur for a significantly high number of pulses, and well fitted by a modified incubation model.