Numerical Simulation of Femtosecond Laser Ablation of Copper: Comparison Between Molecular Dynamics and Finite Difference Calculations

Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Finite Difference (FD) methods are applied to investigate femtosecond laser ablation of copper. Laser induced heat transfer, melting, vaporization, and material ablation are studied. Phase change relevant parameters, such as the velocity of solid-liquid and liquid-vapor interfaces are reported. It is shown that results of MD and FD are in good agreement before strong material removal occurs. However, only MD is capable of capturing the ablation phenomena accurately.