Spatially and temporally varying neutral, ion and electron number densities have been mapped out within laser ablated plasma plumes expanding into vacuum. Ablation of a magnesium target was performed using a KrF laser, 30 ns pulse duration and 248 nm wavelength. During the initial stage of plasma expansion (t <EQ 100 ns) interferometry has been used to obtain line averaged electron number densities, for laser power densities on target in the range 1.3 - 3.0 X 108 W/cm2. Later in the plasma expansion (t equals 1 microsecond(s) ) simultaneous absorption and laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy has been used to determine 3D neutral and ion number densities, for a power density equal to 6.7 X 107 W/cm2. Two distinct regions within the plume were identified. One is a fast component (approximately 106 cm-1) consisting of ions and neutrals with maximum number densities observed to be approximately 30 and 4 X 1012 cm-3 respectively, and the second consists of slow moving neutral material at a number density of up to 1015 cm-3. Additionally a Langmuir probe has been used to obtain ion and electron number densities at very late times in the plasma expansion (1 microsecond(s) <EQ t <EQ 15 microsecond(s) ). A copper target was ablated using a Nd:YAG laser, 7.5 ns duration and 532 nm (2 (omega) ) wavelength, with a power density on target equal to 6 X 108 W/cm2. Two regions within the plume with different velocities were observed. Within a fast component (approximately 3 X 106 cms-1) electron and ion number densities of the order 5 X 1012 cm-3 were observed and within the second slower component (approximately 106 cms-1) electron and ion number densities of the order 1 - 2 X 1013 cm-3 were determined.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.