Ultrashort laser ablation of nickel in vacuum. Material relaxation and nanoparticles generation

Theoretical analysis and experimental characterization of femtosecond (fs) laser ablation of nickel target in vacuum with respect to generation of nanoparticles are presented. The fs laser pulse-metal interaction and the following excited material relaxation were studied theoretically by means of Molecular Dynamics simulations. The experimental study was carried out by using laser pulses of approximate to 300 fs duration at two different laser wavelengths: in the visible (lambda = 527 nm) and ultraviolet (lambda = 263 nm), respectively.