The mechanism of mechanical ablation of nanoparticles during the interaction with a high-power laser radiation pulse is proposed. A particle is polarized under a laser electric field, and electric forces acting on field-induced oppositesign charges cause rupture stresses. Upon reaching the stresses exceeding the maximum allowable values for a given material, a nanoparticle decays into two ones. This effect can be used for narrowing the size distribution of nanoparticles produced by the laser ablation method.
Proceedings of SPIE. 2018. Vol. 10614 : XIII International conference on atomic and molecular pulsed lasers, September 10-15, 2017, Tomsk, Russia. P. 1061415-1-1061415-6