Photoacoustic monitoring of the mass removed in pulsed laser ablation

The mass Delta m removed per pulse in laser ablation was shown to correlate with the acoustic signal A and the beam diameter phi. The functional forms of Delta m(A, phi) were deduced for aluminum and polyvinyl chloride, for fluence ranging from 1.5 through 88J cm(-2). Delta m so computed agreed with empirical values within experimental error. For samples whose mass is sensitive to environmental factors, off-line measurement of Delta m was shown to be unreliable and real-time measurements such as acoustic monitoring became essential. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.