Effect of pressure relaxation during the laser heating and electron–ion relaxation stages

The multi-phase equation of state by Bushman et al. (Sov. Tech. Rev. 5:1–44, 2008) is modified to describe states with different electron and ion temperatures and it is applied to the non-equilibrium evolution of an aluminum sample heated by a subpicosecond laser pulse. The sample evolution is described by the two-temperature model for the electron and ion temperatures, while the pressure and density are described by a simplified relaxation equation. The pressure relaxation in the heating stage reduces the binding energy and facilitates the electron-driven ablation. The model is applied to estimate the ablation depth of an Al target irradiated by a subpicosecond laser pulse. It improves the agreement with the experimental data and provides a new explanation of the ablation process.