Comparison of the productivity and ablation efficiency of different laser classes for laser ablation of gold in water and air

In this study, we compare different laser systems used for the synthesis of nanoparticles. The productivity and ablation efficiency of laser ablation of gold in water and in air are determined for three pulsedlaser systems withcomparable pulse energy but different pulse duration and repetition rate. All experiments are performed in a fluence range of up to 20J/cm2. The highest productivity among the considered lasers is found for a high-power picosecondlaser, which shows 12 times higher ablation rate for the ablation in air compared to ablation in liquid. Further, we find that the threshold fluence for ablation in air is up to 1.9 times higher than for ablation in water. The highest ablation efficiency, which is defined as an energy specific ablation volume bythe ablation rate divided by the laser power, isfound for the low power, compactnanosecondlaser system.