Multiscale investigation of thickness dependent melting thresholds of nickel film under femtosecond laser heating

A multiscale modeling that integrates electronic scale ab initio quantum mechanical calculation, atomic scale molecular dynamics simulation, and continuum scale two-temperature model description of the femtosecond laser processing of nickel film at different thicknesses is carried out in this paper. The electron thermophysical parameters (heat capacity, thermal conductivity, and electron-phonon coupling factor) are calculated from first principles modeling, which are further substituted into molecular dynamics and two-temperature model coupled energy equations of electrons and phonons. The melting thresholds for nickel films of different thicknesses are determined from multiscale simulation. Excellent agreement between results from simulation and experiment is achieved, which demonstrates the validity of modeled multiscale framework and its promising potential to predict more complicate cases of femtosecond laser material processing. When it comes to process nickel film via femtosecond laser, the quantitatively calculated maximum thermal diffusion length provides helpful information on choosing the film thickness.