Photochemical ablation of organic solids

We have investigated by molecular dynamics simulations the ablation of material that is onset by photochemical processes. We compare this system with only photochemical processes to a system containing photochemical and photothermal processes. The simulations reveal that ablation by purely photochemical processes is accompanied by the ejection of relatively cold massive molecular clusters from the surface of the sample. The top of the plume exhibits high temperatures whereas the residual part of the sample is cold. The removal of the damaged material through big mo-lecular cluster ejection is consistent with experimental observations of low heat damage of material