Science and applications of energy beam ablation

This article reviews the advances in the science and applications of energy beam ablation of materials at the University of Michigan. Types of energy beams applied to materials ablation are: excimer lasers, laser-ablation-assisted plasma discharges, and channelspark electron beams. The characteristics of the ablation plasma plumes generated by these energy deposition sources are discussed and compared. Plume expansion velocities are in the range of cm//spl mu/s for all three types of ablation plumes. Electron beam ablation plumes show higher ionization states than laser ablation plumes.