ABSTRACT
Laser ablation means using laser light energy to remove a portion
of a sample by fusion, melting, erosion, sublimation, explosion,
and/or ionization, which will result in the formation of a gaseous
vapor, luminous plasma, and fine particles. As known, “the history
of the interaction of high-power lasers with solid matter is as
old as the laser itself.”1 Pulsed-laser ablation of solid materials
has attracted intense attention for many years because of its high
potential in laser-based material processing, including thin solid
film preparation, nanocrystal synthesis, laser surface cleaning, and
device fabrication. In recent decades, the simplicity and versatility
of this process has further made it to be an important tool for
nanosized material fabrication in nanoscience and nanotechnology.
Because laser ablation of solid materials can be easily carried
out in a conventional deposition chamber with vacuum or diluted
gases, most of the early researchers have focused their attention
on pulsed-laser ablation of a solid target in vacuum or in filled
gaseous ambient, aiming at various applications of pulsed-laser
ablation taking place at the gas-solid interface.2−4 Compared with applications of pulsed-laser ablation in vacuum or diluted
gas, applications of pulsed-laser ablation of a solid target in a
confined liquid are really comparatively limited to the field of
interactions between a laser and materials.5,6 This is because the
interaction between a laser pulse and a solid target in a confining
liquid is more complex than that between a laser pulse and a solid
target in vacuum or diluted gaseous ambient.7 Therefore, although
in the past decades some pioneering studies were involved in the
interaction between a laser pulse and a solid target in a confining
liquid from the viewpoint of various spectroscopies,8−11 intense studies aiming at the application of laser ablation in liquids in
advanced materials processing still need to be well developed.12
