Laser ablation or photoablation (also called laser blasting[1][2][3]) is the process of removing material from a solid (or occasionally liquid) surface by irradiating it with a laser beam. At low laser flux, the material is heated by the absorbed laser energy and evaporates or sublimates. At high laser flux, the material is typically converted to a plasma. Usually, laser ablation refers to removing material with a pulsed laser, but it is possible to ablate material with a continuous wave laser beam if the laser intensity is high enough. While relatively long laser pulses (e.g. nanosecond pulses) can heat and thermally alter or damage the processed material, ultrashort laser pulses (e.g. femtoseconds) cause only minimal material damage during processing due to the ultrashort light-matter interaction and are therefore also suitable for micromaterial processing.[4] Excimer lasers of deep ultra-violet light are mainly used in photoablation; the wavelength of laser used in photoablation is approximately 200 nm.
- ^ "Understanding Laser Blasting". BlastOne International. 2019.
- ^ "Laser Blasting Replaces Abrasive Blasting". Laser Photonics. 18 September 2018.
- ^ Joaquín Penide; Jesús del Val; Antonio Riveiro; Ramón Soto; Rafael Comesaña; Félix Quintero; Mohamed Boutinguiza; Fernando Lusquiños; Juan Pou (3 December 2018). "Laser Surface Blasting of Granite Stones Using a Laser Scanning System". Coatings. 9 (2) (Surface Treatment by Laser-Assisted Techniques ed.). MDPI (published 19 February 2019): 131. doi:10.3390/coatings9020131.
- ^ Chichkov, B N; Momma, C; Nolte, S; Von Alvensleben, F; Tünnermann, A (August 1996). "Femtosecond, picosecond and nanosecond laser ablation of solids". Applied Physics A. 63 (2): 109–115. Bibcode:1996ApPhA..63..109C. doi:10.1007/BF01567637. S2CID 95436515.