Ablation of ionic crystals induced by capillary-discharge XUV laser

Single crystals of two fluorides (LiF and CaF2) and a tungstate (PbWO4) were irradiated by nanosecond pulses of 46.9- nm radiation provided by 10-Hz capillary-discharge Ne-like Ar laser (CDL). The damage threshold was determined in LiF using the CDL beam focused by a Sc/Si multilayer-coated spherical mirror. Irradiated samples have been investigated by Nomarski (DIC - Differential Interference Contrast) microscopy and optical (WLI - white light intereferometry) profiler. After an exposure by a certain number of CDL pulses, an ablation rate can be calculated from WLI measured depth of the crater created by the XUV ablation. Potential use of XUV ablation of ionic crystals in pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of thin layers of such a particular material, which is difficult to ablate by conventional UV-Vis- NIR lasers, is discussed in this contribution.