Experimental verification of femtosecond laser ablation schemes by time-resolved soft x-ray reflective imaging

Pump and probe reflective imaging using a soft x-ray laser probe was applied to the observation of the early stage of femtosecond laser ablation process on platinum. In strongly excited area, drastic and fast reflectivity drop was observed. In moderately excited area, the decay of the reflectivity is slower than that in the strongly excited area, and the reflectivity reaches its minimum at t = 160 ps. In weakly excited area, laser-induced reflectivity change was not observed. In addition, the point where the reflectivity dip was observed at t = 10 ps and t = 40 ps, coincides with the position of the edge of reflectivity drop at t = 160 ps. These results give the critical information about the femtosecond laser ablation.