21–25 Sept 2026
Paul Scherrer Institut
Europe/Zurich timezone
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Modeling Laser-induced Dynamics and Material Modification in Thin Gold Foils

21 Sept 2026, 16:05
1m
SwissFEL

SwissFEL

Entrance
Poster Solid State Physics Poster Session (I)

Speaker

Maura Münier

Description

Understanding the dynamics underlying the interaction of ultrashort intense laser pulses with metals is of key interest for advancing controlled laser-based material processing. The irradiation of metal targets with intense laser pulses triggers a variety of physical processes, including the initial laser heating of the electrons, energy transfer between the electronic and lattice system and eventually ionic ablation from the target. The induced structural changes can be characterized experimentally via pump-probe coherent diffractive imaging (CDI).

We have developed a multistage approach to model the ablation of a thin gold foil from the excitation to the expansion phase using a two-temperature model and subsequent molecular-dynamics simulations. To translate the evolving structures into experimentally accessible observables we derived the transient optical properties of the sample during ablation by adapting the parameters of the well-known Drude-Lorentz model with density- and temperature dependent electronic configurations from an average-atom model. In a second step we simulated time-resolved diffraction patterns using the adapted optical properties and the recently developed pMSFT method and compared the results with CDI measurements.

Scientific Topics Imaging

Author

Co-authors

Dr Christian Peltz (University of Rostock) Dr Franziska Fennel (University of Rostock) Prof. Thomas Fennel (University of Rostock) Tom Böttcher (University of Rostock)

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