Laser ablation of a platinum target in water. II. Ablation rate and nanoparticle size distributions

This is the second in a series of three papers examining nanomaterial formation in laser ablation in liquids (LAL). Here we study the effect of the laser wavelength and fluence on the mass yield and size distribution of nanoparticles prepared by laser ablation of a platinum target immersed in water. For all wavelengths tested, laser fluences in the range of 10-70J/cm(2) resulted in spheroidal, nonagglomerated platinum nanoparticles with sizes ranging from 1to30nm. Nanoparticle size distributions are found to be composed of two modes that are attributed to thermal vaporization and explosive boiling mechanisms. The peak of the smaller size mode remains nearly constant at 3nm for all laser conditions, which is suggested to be due to the strong confinement of the vapor plume by the liquid. The larger size mode peaks in the range of 5-15nm with a population that is strongly dependent on the laser parameters. It is concluded that changes in the mean size reported in many earlier studies on LAL of metal targets are a result of the relative quantity of nanoparticles from each mechanism rather than direct control over the ablation process. Additionally, it was observed that the yield of platinum nanoparticles was significantly larger for 1064nm wavelength at fluences greater than 10J/cm(2). The maximum ablation rate was approximately 4.4mg/h, with an estimated ablation and collection efficiency of 0.9 mu g/J. Dependence of the mass yield on wavelength and fluence is seen to be dependent primarily on the extent of the explosive mechanism. (C) 2006 American Institute of Physics.