GHz bursts in MHz burst(BiBurst) enabling high-speed femtosecond laser ablation of silicon due to prevention of air ionization

For the practical use of femtosecond laser ablation, inputs of higher laser intensity are preferred to attain high-throughput material removal. However, the use of higher laser intensities for increasing ablation rates can have detrimental effects on ablation quality due to excess heat generation and air ionization. This paper employs ablation using BiBurst femtosecond laser pulses, which consist of multiple bursts(2 and 5 bursts) at a repetition rate of 64 MHz, each containing multiple intra-pulses(2–20 pulses) at an ultrafast repetition rate of 4.88 GHz, to overcome these conflicting conditions. Ablation of silicon substrates using the BiBurst mode with 5 burst pulses and 20 intra-pulses successfully prevents air breakdown at packet energies higher than the pulse energy inducing the air ionization by the conventional femtosecond laser pulse irradiation(single-pulse mode). As a result, ablation speed can be enhanced by a factor of23 without deteriorating the ablation quality compared to that by the single-pulse mode ablation under the conditions where the air ionization is avoided.

Determination of Xenon in Air by a Pulse-discharge Helium Ionization Detector

A pulse-discharge helium ionization detector（Valco, PD-D3-I） was used to measure xenon concentration in air. The dependences of the detector relative response on various gas chromatograph parameters were investigated. Based on the well prepared gas connections for the detector system and optimized gas chromatography（GC） working conditions, the atmospheric xenon concentration could be measured by the cheap GC method with a detection level of 0.7×10-9（parts by volume）. Moreover, the xenon concentration in the ground level air around our laboratory was measured with the result of 0.085×10-6（parts by volume） and RSD of 0.91%.

Shadowgraph investigation of plasma shock wave evolution from Al target under 355-nm laser ablation

The propagation of a plasma shock wave generated from an Al target surface ablated by a nanosecond Nd：YAG laser operating at 355 nm in air is investigated at the different focusing positions of the laser beam by using a time-resolved shadowgraph imaging technique. The results show that in the case of a target surface set at the off-focus position, the condition of the focal point behind or in front of the target surface greatly influences the evolution of an Al plasma shock wave, and an ionization channel forms in the case of the focal point set in front of the target surface. Moreover, it is found that the shadowgraph with the evolution time around 100 ns shows that a protrusion appears at the front tip of the shock wave if the focal point is at the target surface. In addition, the calculated results of the expanding velocity of the shock wave front, the mass density, and pressure just behind the shock wave front are presented based on the shadowgraphs.

Design and performance of air flow-assisted ionization imaging mass spectrometry system

The imaging mass spectrometry（IMS） technology has experienced a rapid development in recent years.A new IMS technology which is based on air flow assisted ionization（AFAI） was reported.It allows for the convenient pretreatment of the samples and can image a large area of sample in a single measurement with high sensitivity.The AFAI in DESI mode was used as the ion source in this paper.The new IMS method is named AFADESI-IMS.The adoption of assisted air flow makes the sample pretreatment easy and convenient.An optimization of the distance between the ion transport tube and MS orifice increases the sensitivity of the system.For data processing,a program based on MATLAB with the function of numerical analysis was developed.A theoretical imaging resolution of a few hundred microns can be achieved.The composite AFAI-IMS images of different target analytes were imaged with high sensitivity.A typical AFAI-IMS image of the whole-body section of a rat was obtained in a single analytical measurement.The ability to image a large area for relevant samples in a single measurement with high sensitivity and repeatability is a significant advantage.The method has enormous potentials in the MS imaging of large and complicated samples.

DSMC modeling of rarefied ionization reactions and applications to hypervelocity spacecraft reentry flows

The DSMC modeling is developed to simulate three-dimensional(3D)rarefied ionization flows and numerically forecast the communication blackout around spacecraft during hypervelocity reentry.A new weighting factor scheme for rare species is introduced,whose key point is to modify the corresponding chemical reaction coefficients involving electrons,meanwhile reproduce the rare species in resultants and preserve/delete common species in reactants according to the weighting factors.The resulting DSMC method is highly efficient in simulating weakly inhomogeneous flows including the Couette shear flow and controlling statistical fluctuation with high resolution.The accurate reliability of the present DSMC modeling is also validated by the comparison with a series of experimental measurements of the Shenzhou reentry capsule tested in a low-density wind tunnel from the HAI of CARDC.The obtained electron number density distribution for the RAM-C II vehicle agrees well with the flight experiment data,while the electron density contours for the Stardust hypervelocity reentry match the reference data completely.In addition,the present 3D DSMC algorithm can capture distribution of the electron,N+and O+number densities better than the axis-symmetric DSMC model.The introduction of rare species weighting factor scheme can significantly improve the smoothness of the number density contours of rare species,especially for that of electron in weak ionization case,while it has negligible effect on the macroscopic flow parameters.The ionization characteristics of the Chinese lunar capsule reentry process are numerically analyzed and forecasted in the rarefied transitional flow regime at the flying altitudes between 80 and 97 km,and the simulations predict communication blackout altitudes which are in good agreement with the actual reentry flight data.For the spacecraft reentry with hypervelocity larger than the second cosmic speed,it is forecasted and verified by the present DSMC modeling that ionization reactions will cover the windward capsule surface,leading to reentry communication blackout,and the communication interruption must be considered in the communication design during reentry in rarefied flow regimes.