Modification of the temporal laser source term in two-temperature model

Simulations on the interaction between laser pulses with materials during pulsed laser ablation require information on the characteristics of both laser and material. While details on material properties are extensively studied, the temporal profile of the laser source term is rarely studied and is generally assumed to be Gaussian. This article explores the effects of non-Gaussian temporal laser source terms (TLSTs) in simulating the heat diffusion within a metal upon irradiation of femtosecond pulsed lasers. We employed the Two-Temperature Model (TTM) to simulate the temperature evolution on the surface of copper upon irradiation of a 100-fs laser pulse with different TLSTs at different laser repetition modes (single-shot, burst, and biburst). We used a constant total fluence of 3J/cm ² in all cases and subsequently calculated the ablation depths based on the resulting temperature values. Our results show that non-Gaussian TLSTs generate lower electron and lattice temperatures, resulting in shallower crater depths compared to a Gaussian TLST. However, under burst and biburst modes, particularly with higher subpulse number repetition time, the results of non-Gaussian TLSTs approximate those of Gaussian TLSTs. To initiate laser ablation in such cases, higher laser fluence might be required. Our work on non-Gaussian temporal profiles in TTM simulations can be applied to other computational methods in describing laser-matter interaction.