The ablation rate of sintered polytetrafluoroethylene
(PTFE) targets has been investigated as a function of wavelength within the
range $193 \le \lambda \le 1064$ nm and pulse durations $5 \le \tau _{l} \le 25$ ns by means of various different lasers. In this parameter range, the
apparent optical properties of targets and the depth of energy deposition
are determined mainly by the scattering of the laser light. Therefore,
measurements of the scattered light were performed for samples of various
thicknesses by means of a modified UV-VIS spectrometer. For selected
wavelengths, the angular distribution of the reflected and transmitted light
intensity was determined. From these measurements, the coefficients for
linear absorption, linear scattering and the scattering anisotropy were
calculated using the inverse adding doubling algorithm. The results were
tested by Monte Carlo simulation. With these coefficients the apparent
optical penetration depths were estimated. These are about one order of
magnitude larger than the ablation depths per pulse, which were determined
from the weight loss of the targets.
Laser deposition