IR and UV irradiations on ion bombarded polycrystalline silver

Ion bombarded polycrystalline fine polished silver surfaces are exposed to Nd:YAG (1064 nm, 10 mJ, 12 ns) and KrF excimer (248 nm, 57 mJ, 20 ns) lasers to examine structural and morphological changes employing X-ray diffractometry and optical microscopy, respectively. Irradiation causes considerable changes in grain sizes. Hydrodynamic sputtering is found to be dominant in heat affected zones (HAZs). Craters with irregular boundary and non-uniform thermal conduction are resulted on laser ablated surfaces of ion bombarded specimens. No disturbance takes place in the d-spacing of the planes of irradiated samples.