The mechanisms of melting and photomechanical damage/spallation occurring under extreme superheating/deformation rate conditions realized in short pulse laser processing are investigated in a computational study performed with a hybrid atomistic-continuum model. The model combines classical molecular dynamics method for simulation of nonequilibrium processes of lattice superheating and fast pha...

The generation of crystal defects in a Cr target irradiated by a short, 200 fs, laser pulse is investigated in computer simulations performed with a computational model that combines the classical molecular dynamics method with a continuum description of the laser excitation of conduction band electrons, electron-phonon coupling, and electron heat conduction. Interatomic interactions are descri...

In laser material removal using a continuous wave or long-pulsed laser, the primary material removal mechanism melts with molten metal often ejected by an assisting oxygen jet. Interactions between heat transfer, oxygen diffusion, and gas dynamics have been studied. In laser machining using a Q-switched solid state laser with pulse width on the order of nanoseconds, the primary material removal...

We report structural data on liquid iron at pressures up to 58 GPa measured by x-ray scattering in a laser heated diamond anvil cell. The determined structure factor preserves essentially the same shape along the melting curve. Our data demonstrate that liquid iron at high pressures is a close-packed hard-sphere liquid. The results place important constraints on the thermodynamic and transport ...

It is demonstrated experimentally that strongly coupled plasma exhibits solid superheating. A 2D suspension of microspheres in dusty plasma, initially self-organized in a solid lattice, was heated and then cooled rapidly by turning laser heating on and off. Particles were tracked using video microscopy, allowing atomistic-scale observation during melting and solidification. During rapid heating...

We investigate two-dimensional melting of a colloidal system in the presence of a one-dimensional periodic substrate potential created by two interfering laser beams. We study the commensurability ratio p=sqrt[3]a/2d=2 with a the mean particle distance and d the period of the periodic potential. In contrast with the previously investigated case p=1, here we observe that melting of the locked-fl...