Ultra-short pulse laser ablation of metals: threshold fluence, incubation coefficient and ablation rates

In this paper we present femtosecond laser ablation studies of the metals copper, silver and tungsten. Measurements of the threshold fluence determined from the hole diameters versus fluence provide incubation coefficients of the three materials, which are found to be equal within one standard deviation. Furthermore, we have determined the single-shot threshold fluences to be 1.7±0.3 J/cm2, 1.5±0.4 J/cm2 and 0.44±0.02 J/cm2 for copper, silver and tungsten, respectively. These are in good agreement with theoretical values calculated neglecting heat diffusion.