Laser-induced thermal emission of rough carbon surfaces

The decay of thermal emission of rough surface layers of different carbon materials under the pulsed laser excitation is analyzed both theoretically and experimentally. For pulsed laser heating of rough surfaces, computer simulations revealed that laser-induced thermal radiation is mainly emitted by peaks of the surface relief, and the emission decay time depends on the relation between the laser penetration depth and the temperature diffusion length. It is also concluded that the presence of surface roughness can significantly increase the emission decay time. In the experiments, carbon materials with different thermal characteristics were used; however, all of the investigated samples demonstrated close values of the emission decay time. This fact shows that the material's characteristics on the peaks of surface relief are similar for different carbon materials at high temperature.