LASER ABLATION OF FILMS AND SUSPENDED PARTICLES IN A SOLVENT - FORMATION OF CLUSTER AND COLLOID SOLUTIONS

A strong 694 nm Ruby laser beam was used to ablate films of gold, nick el and carbon in a solvent (water, 2-propanol, cyclohexane). Colloidal solutions of these materials were obtained. The mean size of the coll oidal gold particles depends on the laser intensity. Small graphite pa rticles (several microns) suspended in toluene were also exposed to th e laser flash. Ablation of these particles in the plasma generated by the laser leads to an orange solution which contains carbon-60, carbon -70 and other carbon clusters which have not yet been identified.