Evaporation as a diagnostic test for hydrodynamic cooling of laser-ablated clusters

摘要

The properties of materials laser-ablated from a surface are of considerable interest. The interrogation of these properties inevitably occurs at a point some distance from the surface. One might then ask what processes have occurred in the intervening path length. Immediately, for example, one wonders whether the material was released as such from the surface or was formed as a result of collisions at a distant point. Similarly, one might ask if an observed ''temperature'' of the materials is characteristic of the ablation process of of subsequent events. We will indicate here how measurements of metastable evaporation rates can provide clues which are pertinent to these questions. 7 refs.