"Metallic burn paper" used for in situ characterization of laser beam properties

In situ ablation of thin metal films on fused silica substrates by picosecond class lasers was investigated as a method of characterizing the beam at the sample plane. The technique involved plotting the areas enclosed by constant fluence contours identified in optical microscope images of the ablation sites versus the logs of the pulse energies. Inconel films on commercially available neutral density filters as well as magnetron sputtered gold films were used. It was also shown that this technique could be used to calibrate real-time beam profile diagnostics against the beam at the sample plane. The contours were shown to correspond to the boundary where part or all of the film was ablated.