A Study of Laser Ablation Simulation on Lead Telluride

This objective of this research was to study the simulation of laser ablation on thermoelectric material (Lead Telluride: PbTe). The temperature change caused by laser beam ablation on PbTe target was simulated using both COMSOL Multiphysics 5.5 and ANSYS 2021 R1 fi nite element analysis software packages. The laser power varied between 10 to 40 W, while the speeds ranged from 1000 to 4000 rpm. The results showed that at any given laser speed, the local maximum temperature on PbTe increased with an increase in the laser power. The maximum temperature decreased with an increase in the laser speed at a constant laser power. The moving point heat source of laser at 20 W gave the maximum temperature, which was slightly higher than the melting point of PbTe, potentially resulting in the generation of PbTe nanoparticles. The results obtained from both software diff ered by about 10 %. Both software can be used to simulate completely and even more eff ective in the future.