LASER ANNEALING EXPERIMENTS WITH NIOBIUM

We describe our recent pulsed laser annealing studies on small samples of bulk niobium. We compare the effects of annealing over a range of single pulse energy density, and in three gas environments: air, nitrogen, and argon. Our Nd:YAG laser allows annealing studies with 266 nm UV light, and with 532 nm green light. We examine the sample surface for structural changes by SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) and by MicroXAM (a surface mapping microscope).