Femtosecond Laser Ablation of Solid Targets using Gaussian and Vortex Beams

This thesis presents a detailed investigation of laser ablation of solid targets with femtosecond (fs) pulses, focusing on three prominent aspects: 1) spatial and temporal evolution of the laser produced plume, in high vacuum condition; 2) nanoparticles generation in high vacuum and applications of nanostructured films in material science; 3) surface micro/nanostructure formation, in ambient condition. Most of the experiments were carried out on pure copper and silicon targets, and some of the results were compared with other metals as well. While the first two investigations were performed with a standard, fs laser beam with Gaussian spatial intensity profile, material surface structuring was carried out with spatially shaped optical vortex pulses, which are recently gaining an increasing interest in the field of fs laser ablation.