Effects of electron-phonon coupling and electron diffusion on ripples growth on ultrafast-laser-irradiated metals

Metals exposed to ultrafast laser irradiation close to ablative regimes show often a submicron-scale (near 0.5 mu m) periodic organization of the surface as ripples. Using two classes of metallic materials (transition and noble), we have determined that the ripples amplitude is strongly correlated to the material transport properties, namely electron-phonon relaxation strength, electronic diffusion, and to the energy band characteristics of the electronic laser excitation. This particularly depends on the topology of the electronic structure, including d-band effects on electronic excitation. Comparing the effects of electron-phonon nonequilibrium lifetimes for the different metals under similar irradiation conditions, we indicate how the electron-phonon coupling strength affects the electronic thermal diffusion, the speed of phase transformation and impacts on the ripples contrast. The highest contrast is observed for ruthenium, where the electron-phonon coupling is the strongest, followed by tungsten, nickel, and copper, the latter with the least visible contrast. The dependence of surface patterns contrast with fluence is linked to the dependence of the relaxation characteristics with the electronic temperature. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3676221]