Laser Chemistry
Volume 17 (1997), Issue 2, Pages 73-95
doi:10.1155/1997/45930
A Comparative Study of the
UV Laser Ablation of Van Der Waals Films of Benzene Derivatives
Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, P.O. Box 1527, Crete, Heraklion 71110, Greece
Received 10 May 1996
Abstract
Ablation of thick (≈ 15 μm) films of C6H6, C6H5CH3 and C6H5CI at 248 nm and 193 nm
is studied by means of time-of-flight quadrupole mass spectrometry. The dependence of
the desorbate most probable translational energies on laser fluence is determined over the
≈20–200 mJ/cm2 range. In all cases, the corresponding diagrams are found to exhibit
“plateaus”, in accord with the report by Braun and Hess [J. Chem. Phys. 99 (1993) 8330].
However, no specific correlation with the thermodynamic properties of the compounds is
observed, thereby questioning the attribution of the “plateaus” to phase transformation
of the films under ablation conditions. A high sensitivity of the distributions and intensities
on the rate of deposition and the irradiation history of the films is observed,
indicating the importance of the matrix “structure” for the distribution of the absorbed
energy. On the other hand, the analysis of the total translational energies of the desorbates
suggests that during ablation, efficient energy transfer occurs in the film. This
possibility is further demonstrated by the observation of high translational energies and
sputtering yields for C6H12(nonabsorbing at 248 nm) condensed in thickness of ≈ I μm
on top of C6H5CH3 films. These observations can be qualitatively explained in terms of
the collisional sequence model. Alternatively, a photothermal model may be applicable
under the provision that energy distribution in the films is limited due to imperfections
introducing barriers (bottlenecks) to its ‘flow’.