Abstract

Ultrashort femtosecond laser ablation of metals constitutes an efficient source of metallic nanoparticles (NPs) and understanding and monitoring their presence in laser ablation plasmas is crucial for preparation of NP-assembled films by pulsed laser deposition [1], for increasing the efficiency of coherent X-ray light through high harmonic generation in laser plasmas [2] and for analytical optimization of fs-laser induced breakdown spectroscopy [3]. Characterization of morphology and dynamics of metallic NPs in laser ablation plasmas is usually carried out by optical emission and extinction spectroscopies, by inspection of plume debris on a witness substrate and others. In this work we present a method of characterization of NPs generated in fs-laser ablation of metals based in the measurement of the optical harmonics of a ns IR driving laser generated by nonlinear interaction (NL) with the plume species [4].

© 2015 IEEE