Laser ablation modeling for Gaussian and tophat beam profiles

using a two-temperature model

Joy Kristelle C. De Mata1,* Lean L. Dasallas1 and Wilson O. Garcia 2

1
Materials Science and Engineering Program, College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman
2
National Institute of Physics, College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman
*
Corresponding author: jcdemata1@up.edu.ph

Abstract
Laser ablation of material depends on the laser parameter used. In most cases, pulsed lasers with
Gaussian beam profiles are used. However, due to the energy waste at the tail of the Gaussian beam
profile, a tophat beam can be used to reduce this negative effect. In this study, a two-temperature
model (TTM) was utilized to investigate the effect of the beam profile on the ablation of copper
target. Tophat beam resulted into a higher ablation capacity as compared to a Gaussian beam. In
addition, numerical findings show the logarithmic dependence of the amount of ablated materials on
the laser fluence for both beam profiles.
Keywords: beam profile, Two-Temperature Model

1 Introduction
Popular pulsed laser used in laser ablation such as Nd:YAG have Gaussian spatial beam profile. Gaussian
beam profiles have energy tails at the end of the spatial intensity. The energy at the tail of the beam
profile is often lower than the ablation threshold of the target material. This leads to energy waste since it
is insufficient to cause ablation. As a result, when utilizing a Gaussian laser beam, the ablation efficiency
per pulse energy decreases [1]. Improving the beam shape can help improve the useful energy delivered
for laser ablation, as explored in the works of Rung et al [2].
The energy wasted during laser-material interaction is reduced by the use of beam shapers and beam
homogenisers [3], which change the energy distribution of the laser pulse over the beam spatial profile.
Top-hat beams with uniform spatial intensity can be created from Gaussian beams [1]. A tophat laser
beam with a rectangular footprint offers various advantages for laser ablation as compared to a stan-
dard Gaussian beam profile with a circular footprint [4]. These advantages include minimizing excess
energy not contributing to ablation by tuning the homogenous region of the laser beam profile close to
the ablation threshold [2]. Second, the tophat laser beam profile has steeper wings than the Gaussian
energy distribution. As a result, the material part exposed to insufficient energy for ablation is reduced,
which lowers the likelihood of unintended adjustments to the remaining thin film characteristics [2, 4, 5].
Experimental demonstration of the process has been reported by Rung et al [2], but the computational
aspect of the study is still lacking.
In this study, the two-temperature model is used to simulate the ablation crater produced by Gaussian
and tophat beam profile. The volume of the simulated ablation crater and threshold was then determined
and compared.

2 Theory
The relaxation process which establishes the equilibrium between the electron and lattice system must be
looked upon as a two-temperature system [6]. TTM can be used to describe the heat transfer during the
laser-material interaction in pulsed laser deposition [7, 8]. This model is widely employed in femtosecond
pulsed laser ablation which describes the temporal and spatial evolution of electron (Te ) and lattice (Tl )
temperatures of the metal target [9]. This is described by the coupled equations

∂Te →
− →
−
Ce = ∇ · [ke ∇(Te )] − G(Te − Tl ) + S(z, t), (1)
∂t
∂Tl →
− →
−
= ∇ · [kl ∇(Tl )] + G(Te − Tl )
Cl (2)
∂t
where Ce and Cl are the heat capacity of the electron and lattice systems, respectively. In addition, ke
and kl are the thermal conductivities of the electron and lattice systems of the metal target, G is the

Proceedings of the Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas

40th Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas Physics Conference
19–21 October 2022
SPP-2022-PA-15-1
electron-phonon coupling factor, and S(z,t) is the laser source term. Assuming that the laser beam used
is a Gaussian beam centered at the origin and is normal to the target surface, the laser source term S(z,t)
is given by
 2 
0.94(1 − |R|2 )J x2 + y 2
    
z t
S= exp − exp − 2.27 exp − 2 (3)
tp (d + λB ) (d + λB ) tp ωo2
where tp = 2.5 × 10−13 s is the laser pulse duration, J = 3 J/cm2 is the laser fluence, ωo = 7.01 × 10−6 m
is the laser beam waist, |R|2 is the reflectivity of the material, d = 13 × 10−9 m is the optical penetration
depth and λB = 15 × 10−9 m is the ballistic length of copper [9]. If the minimum beam waist occurs at
value of zo ̸= 0, the beam waist becomes
1/2
z2

ωz = ωo 1 + 2 (4)
zR

where z is the distance along the propagation and zR is the Rayleigh length [10]. Rayleigh length or the
depth of focus is given by
πωo2
zR = . (5)
λM 2
The term M 2 is the beam quality factor. The value of M 2 for Gaussian and tophat beam is 1 and 10,
respectively. For a tophat beam, the value of M 2 results in larger focal spot [11]. This term will replace
the term ωo in the laser source term. In addition to the Rayleigh length and beam waist, the transverse
distribution of the beam is also changed when transforming a Gaussian beam to a tophat beam. The
intensity of a simple Gaussian beam is in the order of 2 [10]. Typically, however, a flat-top beam profile
has some smooth edges, so it can be approximated with supergaussian profile with intensity profile of
order n instead of as compared with a Gaussian beam. The higher the order, the steeper are the edges
of the profile. In this study, the value of n used is 10 [12].
Combining Eqs. 3, and 4. The laser source term for a tophat beam is described by
 2  10 
0.94(1 − |R|2 )J
    
z t x+y
S= exp − exp − 2.27 exp − 2 (6)
tp (d + λB ) (d + λB ) tp ωz

Eqs. 3 and 6 were used in the laser source term for Gaussian and tophat beams in the TTM model,
respectively.

3 Numerical results and analysis

The 3D reconstruction of the crater produced during pulsed laser ablation is shown in Fig. 1. The
effect of changing the beam profile is evident with Fig. 1a which utilizes a Gaussian beam and Fig.
1b for a tophat beam of the same wavelength. When a tophat beam was used, there were noticeably
more materials removed from the bulk material, which is proportional to the size of the irradiated zone.
Gaussian beam have a smaller ablated zone radius at just 22.9 nm as opposed to 30.3 nm for tophat
beams. Although the crater made by a Gaussian beam is almost 1 nm deeper, the irradiation zone using
a tophat beam is still significantly bigger, leading to higher ablation.

Table 1: Volume for fluence of 3 J/cm2

Laser beam Volume of crater (m3 ) Mass of ablated copper (kg) No. of Cu particles
Gaussian 2.049×10−18 1.809×10−14 1.716×1011
Tophat 9.099×10−18 8.035×10−14 7.620×1011

To give a quantitative measure of the amount of ablated materials, the corresponding volume were
computed and tabulated in Tab. 1. The amount of ablated materials when tophat beam was used at
800 nm was more than four times of the amount of ablated materials when a Gaussian beam operating
at the same wavelength was used. If we compare the Gaussian beam with the tophat beam operating at
the UV region, the amount is 1 magnitude of order greater. This result demonstrates that the amount
of ablated materials and consequently the resulting ablation crater greatly depends on the beam profile
used in laser ablation.

Proceedings of the Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas

40th Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas Physics Conference
19–21 October 2022
SPP-2022-PA-15-2
Figure 1: Ablation crater produced during laser ablation when (a) Gaussian beam (λ=800 nm), and (b) tophat
beam (λ=800 nm) is used.

Figure 2: Volume of ablated material at different laser fluences where the blue and green dots represent the
volumes for tophat and Gaussian beams, respectively.

The simulated volume of ablated materials using a single pulse laser on a copper target for laser fluence
ranging from 2-5 J/cm2 is shown in Fig. 2. A logarithmic relationship between the data and laser fluence
is evident. The volume of ablated materials increases dramatically at lower laser fluences (2-4 J/cm2 ),
especially for tophat beam. On the other hand, under higher fluence regimes, a linear relationship can be
observed between the volume of ablated materials and the increase in fluence. This numerical simulation
is consistent with experimental findings that uses Gaussian beam profiles [8]. The dependence of ablation
on the laser beam profile and laser fluence can be helpful in optimizing the ablation system.

4 Conclusions
The ablation crater produced during laser ablation was reconstructed using the two-temperature model
(TTM). Two beam profiles were explored namely Gaussian and tophat beam. Results showed that the
ablation zone produced by tophat beam is wider resulting to higher number of ablated particles in the
target. This is translated to the amount of removed particles which was more than four times the amount
of ablated material when a Gaussian beam was utilized. In addition, the dependence of the volume of
ablated materials on the laser fluence was also investigated. For both tophat and Gaussian beams,
numerical simulations demonstrate the logarithmic dependency of the volume of ablated materials on the
laser fluence.

Acknowledgments
L.L.D. acknowledges the Office of the Chancellor of the University of the Philippines Diliman, through
the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Development, for funding support through the Ph.D.
Incentive Award.

Proceedings of the Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas

40th Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas Physics Conference
19–21 October 2022
SPP-2022-PA-15-3
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Proceedings of the Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas

40th Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas Physics Conference
19–21 October 2022
SPP-2022-PA-15-4