Laser ablation of solid ozone

Species ablated from solid ozone by a UV laser were investigated using a time-of-flight method through a quadrupole mass filter. The results show that UV-laser ablation of solid ozone can produce a pulsed ozone beam with a translational energy far above that of room temperature. High-concentration ozone from an ozone jet generator is solidified on a sapphire substrate attached to a copper block which is cooled to 30 to 60 K on a cryocooler head and the solid ozone is irradiated by pulsed laser light from a KrF laser (248 nm). The ablated species were a mixture of ozone and molecular oxygen as well as atomic oxygen due to photodissociation of ozone. At a substrate temperature of 30 K, the total amount of ablated ozone increases as the laser fluence increases to 13 mJcm^-2. Beyond this fluence, enhanced decomposition of ozone occurs. Gaussian fitting of the time-of-flight signals of the ablated ozone reveals an average thermal energy exceeding 1,500 K. The velocity also increases when the laser fluence enters saturation at 2,300 K at 13 mJcm^-2.