Interaction Between Pulsed Laser and Materials

The research on laser-matter interaction can bridge the gap between practical problems and applications of lasers, which offers an important way to study material properties and to understand intrinsic microstructure of materials. The laser irradiation-induced effects on materials refer to numerous aspects, including optical, electromagnetic, thermodynamic, biological changes in material properties. The laser-matter interaction is an interdisciplinary and complicated subject [1]. When the material is irradiated with lasers, the laser energy will be firstly transformed into electronic excitation energy and then transferred to lattices of materials through collisions between electrons and lattices. The deposition of laser energy will produce a series of effects, such as temperature rise, gasification and ionization. The physical processes of interactions between lasers and matters can be grouped into linear and nonlinear responses of materials to laser pulses, namely thermal effects, nonlinear interactions, laser plasma effects and so forth [2,3]. This chapter aims at analyzing the abovementioned major effects due to laser irradiation.