Laser ablation: Physical concepts and applications (review)

Laser ablation (i.e., the removal of target material upon irradiation) is under consideration; it is widely applied in some technologies. Physical models needed for an understanding of ablation have been developed since the invention of the first lasers. Some phenomena have been thoroughly investigated; however, there are still many problems that should be analyzed additionally. These poorly studied phenomena include surface structuring. The problems concerning ablation in liquid and laser forging/peening are not yet completely understood. They represent two sides of the same process: in the first case, the emphasis is on the description of motion of the substance beyond the target, whereas, in the case of laser forging, one abstracts from the plume and considers the elastoplastic transformations caused by a shock wave inside a target. The hydrodynamics of these processes differs radically with the transition from ultrashort to long pulses.