Atomistic investigation of ablation of amorphous polystyrene under femtosecond laser pulse

In the present work we elucidate the thermodynamic mechanisms of femtosecond (fs) laser ablation of amorphous polystyrene by means of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The effects of extrinsic parameter of laser pulse intensity and intrinsic parameter of molecular architecture on the laser ablation are further studied. Simulation results show that the laser ablation-induced polymeric material removal is achieved by evaporation from the surface and expansion within the bulk. Furthermore, inter-chain sliding and intra-chain change also play important roles in the microscopic deformation of the material. It is found that both the laser pulse intensity and the arrangement of phenyl groups have significant influence on the fs laser ablation of polystyrene.