Ultrafast thermalization characteristics in Au film irradiated by temporally shaped femtosecond laser pulses

The ultrafast thermalization processes of Au film irradiated by multi-pulse sequences with variable temporal separation were investigated by numerical simulations. Two temporally sequential thermal relaxation mechanisms including the two temperature relaxation and the thermal diffusion relaxation were demonstrated. With inclusion of the electron ballistic effect, we obtained the full 2-D temperature fields evolution dominated by the two distinct relaxation mechanisms. It is proposed that the laser thermalization processes can be greatly promoted through choosing the optimized temporal separation of the pulse train. We also found that the two temperature relaxation period can be modulated by changing the pulse train parameters such as the temporal separation, the pulse durations and the pulse number in a train.