Seminar announcement (Nov 14th): "Laser Ablation: Fundamentals and Applications in Environment, Medicine and Materials Science" by Prof. Cristian Focsa

Prof. Cristian Focsa, from Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, Atomes et Molécules (PhLAM), Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Lasers et Applications (CERLA), Université de Lille in France will give a seminar his research activity on different applications of laser ablations will be reviewed.

Title: "Laser Ablation: Fundamentals and Applications in Environment, Medicine and Materials Science"

Date: November 14th, 15.30h

Place: room 327, Gaia building

Abstract: Our group has developed for several years experimental and theoretical capabilities for the fundamental study of the complex processes involved in laser ablation and its applications in various fields. Fundamental studies on laser ablation plasma plume dynamics have been performed both experimentally by optical (ICCD fast imaging, space- and time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy) and electrical (Langmuir probes, mass spectrometry) methods, and theoretically (development of a new model based on fractal concepts). Various laser pulse durations have been explored (from ns to ps to fs) and some peculiar features have been evidenced in both experimental and theoretical data. Applications of laser ablation have been developed in three fields: environment (mainly analysis of combustion-generated particles), medicine (real-time analysis of cancer markers), and materials science (pulsed laser deposition of various thin films, study of the accelerated erosion of ceramic materials used in plasma space propulsion [8], etc.). Parametric studies and coupling with other on-line or off-line techniques (e.g. mass spectrometry) have led to outstanding results in terms of sensitivity, selectivity or space- and time-resolution for the proposed analytical approaches.