Reflection of femtosecond laser light in multipulse ablation of metals

The shot-to-shot reflectance of high-intensity laser light is studied as a function of both the number of laser shots and laser fluence in multipulse ablation of a metal when the irradiated surface undergoes structural changes from an initially smooth surface to a deep crater. Our study shows that the reflectance of the irradiated surface significantly decreases due to the high intensity of laser pulses and the laser-induced surface structures in ablation regimes typically used for femtosecond laser processing of materials. The high-intensity effect dominates in the reflection reduction at low numbers of laser shots when laser-induced surface structures do not cause the reflectance to decrease noticeably. With increasing the number of laser shots, the structural effect comes into play, and both high-intensity and structural effects quickly reduce the reflectance of the sample to a low value.