Separating thermal, electronic, and topographic effects in pulsed laser melting and sputtering of gold

An attempt was made to separate thermal from electronic effects during laser sputtering of gold by partitioning the target surface energy between steady-state electron beam heating and pulsed laser heating. For flat starting surfaces and a peak surface temperature of ∼ 2700 K, the Au translational energy remains (2 − 3) × higher than classical expectations and is insensitive to how energy is partitioned between steady-state heating and laser heating. The mean desorption energy is linearly dependent on peak surface temperature, but with a slope of 15kBT as opposed to the classical 2kBT. © 1996 American Physical Society.