Recent advancements in understanding of ultrafast laser-material interaction

More than 55 years passed from the creation of the first LASER, one of the most impressive inventions of the 20th century. During this time, lasers have become an instrument, without which it is not possible to imagine both everyday life as well as many fields of scientific research and industrial applications. Despite all this, laser-material interaction remains a very hot topic of research due to a wealth of contributing processes, a great variety lasers and their parameters and a much greater variety of materials, which can be treated by lasers for improving/modifying their properties in different industrial applications (cutting, drilling, cleaning, etc.).

Laser-solid interaction starts from light absorption by a material after which the irradiated matter evolves thermodynamically through a sequence of non-equilibrium and quasi-equilibrium states to its final, laser-modified structure. Heating, melting, ablation, and resolidification even of the same material sample occur differently depending on laser irradiation parameters (wavelength, pulse duration, energy density, and repetition rate). For short and ultrashort laser pulses, when laser-induced heating of materials occurs at picosecond time scale and can be highly localized, steep temperature and hence pressure gradients are produced with consequences in structural changes of the material network that opens new horizons for laser applications based on tailoring material properties.

One of the strategic goals of the HiLASE Centre is the development of novel applications of lasers in material science. A new laser application laboratory is under construction (project BIATRI), which will combine state-of-the-art lasers with the most advanced diagnostics for investigations of the interaction of laser light with different materials at the frontier of material science. An essential feature of the new application laboratory is in a tight link between experimental and theoretical studies, a concept which already brings fruitful outcomes. In this seminar, the latest achievements of the HiLASE Centre in the field of laser material science will be presented and plans for further developments will be outlined.