Microscopic mechanism of ultrashort-pulse laser ablation of metals: a molecular dynamics study incorporating electronic entropy effects

The microscopic mechanism of metal ablation induced by ultrashort laser pulse irradiation is investigated. A two-temperature model scheme combined with molecular dynamics (TTM-MD) is developed to incorporate electronic entropy effects into the simulation of metal ablation while satisfying the energy conservation law. Simulation with the TTM-MD scheme reveals that ultrashort laser pulse irradiation near the ablation threshold causes high-energy ion emission and sub-nanometer depth ablation, as observed experimentally, due to the electronic entropy effect. It is also shown that the electronic entropy effect is also significant in spallation.