Time-resolved visualization of high-repetition ultrashort pulse laser ablation

A pump-probe setup including a Robert-cell-type delay stage is calculated and built in the presented study. The goal is to visualize laser beam material interactions upon highly repetitive ultrashort pulse irradiations by shadowgraph imaging, which makes a valuable contribution to clarify the occurring interaction phenomena in this field. Ultrashort laser pulses (λ=1030nm; τ =400fs) are irradiated onto a bright-rolled stainless steel metal plate (AISI 316). The high-speed shadowgraph sequences are captured for the time-resolved imaging of plasma and shockwave evolution during material ablation. The captured time frame ranges from the time just before the next pulse irradiates the interaction zone until 2 µs after pulse irradiation. The first part of the experimental study features the shockwave dynamics and evolution of the laser plasma/ablation plume as induced upon single-pulse irradiations. It is shown that the expansion velocity of the shockwave decreases from 10 km/s shortly after pulse irradiation to 6.1 km/s at 41 ns after pulse irradiation. The second part deals with laser pulse trains by irradiating up to 10 pulses at 500 kHz pulse repetition frequency to the substrate. For increasing pulse numbers, the shadowgraphs show a steady increase in height and width of the laser plasma/ablation plume that were measured at 2.4 mm in height and 1.2 mm in width after the 10th pulse.