Femto-second laser texturing prediction using COMSOL Multiphysics®

Femto-second laser texturing offers the possibility to reduce significantly the amount of molten material. This means better surface properties as well as more accurate prediction of the surface topography. At SIMTEC, we developed a 2D time dependent model. The ultra-short deposition of the energy is taken into account in this model through an approach called the “two-temperature model”, which consists in modelling the Thermalization of the electrons followed by the energy transfer from the electrons to the lattice.

In this article, we review the range of pulse duration requiring the use of this two-temperature model. The results show that for pulses lower than several tens of picoseconds, the lattice and electron temperature are significantly different indicating the need to use the two-temperature model. This is in accordance with physical phenomena description of ultrashort laser impacts.