Excimer laser destruction of micrometer size particles in a gas volume

ArF excimer laser ablation of micrometer size smoke grains was investigated . It was demonstrated that this procedure is suitable for destruction of th ese particulates in consequence of very fast heating, oxidation, burning, a nd evaporation. The time-resolved investigations revealed that the destruct ion process takes place between 0 and 7 ns after the maximum of the excimer pulse. The efficiency of breaking into small pieces was found to be depend ent on the excimer laser fluence. Atomic force microscopic investigations o f the sedimented smoke particles proved that the size of the grains signifi cantly decreased by the excimer laser radiation. (C) 2001 American Institut e of Physics.