Fractal method for modeling the peculiar dynamics of transient carbon plasma generated by excimer laser ablation in vacuum

Abstract

Carbon plasmas generated by excimer laser ablation are often applied for deposition (in vacuum or under controlled atmosphere) of high-technological interest nanostructures and thin films. For specific excimer irradiation conditions, these transient plasmas can exhibit peculiar behaviors when probed by fast time-and space-resolved optical and electrical methods. We propose here a fractal approach to simulate this peculiar dynamics. In our model, the complexity of the interactions between the transient plasma particles (in the Euclidean space) is substituted by the nondifferentiability (fractality) of the motion curves of the same particles, but in a fractal space. For plane symmetry and particular boundary conditions, stationary geodesic equations at a fractal scale resolution give a fractal velocity field with components expressed by means of nonlinear solutions (soliton type, kink type, etc.). The theoretical model successfully reproduces the (surprising) formation of V-like radiating plasma structures (consisting of two lateral arms of high optical emissivity and a fast-expanding central part of low emissivity) experimentally observed.