Nanochemical effects in femtosecond laser ablation of metals

We study chemical energy released from the oxidation of aluminum in multipulse femtosecond laser ablation in air and oxygen. Our study shows that the released chemical energy amounts to about 13% of the incident laser energy, and about 50% of the ablated material is oxidized. The ablated material mass per laser pulse is measured to be on the nanogram scale. Our study indicates that femtosecond laser ablation is capable of inducing nanochemical reactions since the femtosecond laser pulse can controllably produce nanoparticles, clusters, and atoms from a solid target. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4793521]