title: Liquid nanodroplet formation through phase explosion mechanism in laser-irradiated metal targets.
abstract: Some quantitative aspects of laser-irradiated pure metals, while approaching phase explosion, are still not completely understood. Here, we develop a model that describes the main quantities regulating the liquid-vapor explosive phase transition and the expulsion of liquid nanodroplets that, by solidifying, give rise to nanoparticle formation. The model combines both a thermodynamics description of the explosive phase change and a Monte Carlo simulation of the randomly generated critical vapor bubbles. The calculation is performed on a set of seven metals (Al, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Ag, and Au) which are frequently used in pulsed laser ablation experiments. Our final predictions about the size distribution of the liquid nanodroplets and the number ratio of liquid/vapor ejected atoms are compared, whenever possible, with available molecular dynamics simulations and experimental data.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Trento, 38123 Povo (Trento), Italy.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mazzi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Trento, 38123 Povo (Trento), Italy.|Center for Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems @UniTn, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Corso Bettini 31, 38068 Rovereto, Italy.
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gorrini
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Trento, 38123 Povo (Trento), Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miotello