Author Description

This book describes the use of a femtosecond laser pulses in combination with dry and various liquid environments. It deals with the evolution of micro/nanostructures, variations in crystallinity and nanohardness after interaction of femtosecond laser pulses with silver surface. Formation of silver oxide, silver hydride and silver hydroxide due to enhancement of chemical reactivity of silver after femtosecond laser irradiation is discussed in correlation with the surface and mechanical properties. For this purpose silver targets were ablated with Ti: sapphire laser for various number of laser pulses in ambient environments of air, ethanol, propanol and de-ionized water. Various diagnostic techniques like Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS), X-Ray Diffractometery (XRD), Raman Spectroscopy and nanohardness testing techniques were employed to correlate the variations in crystallinity and surface chemical composition with the surface features and nanohardness after interaction of femtosecond laser pulses.