Abstract
Plasma produced by a 355 nm pulsed Nd:YAG laser with a pulse duration of 6 ns focussed onto a copper solid sample in air at atmospheric pressure is studied spectroscopically. The temperature and electron density characterizing the plasma are measured by time-resolved spectroscopy of neutral atom and ion line emissions in the time window of 300–2000 ns. An echelle spectrograph coupled with a gated intensified charge coupled detector is used to record the plasma emissions. The temperature is obtained using the Boltzmann plot method and the electron density is determined using the Saha-Boltzmann equation method. Both parameters are studied as a function of delay time with respect to the onset of the laser pulse. The results are discussed. The time window where the plasma is optically thin and is also in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE), necessary for the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis of samples, is deduced from the temporal evolution of the intensity ratio of two Cu I lines. It is found to be 700–1000 ns.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
D B Chrisey and G K Hubler, Pulsed laser deposition of thin films (Wiley, New York, 1994)
L J Radziemski and D A Cremers, Laser-induced plasmas and applications (Marcel Dekker Inc., New York, 1989)
A W Miziolek, V Pallesschi and I Schecchter, Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2006)
D A Cremers and L J Radziemski, Handbook of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (John Wiley & Sons Ltd, West Sussex, 2006)
H R Griem, Principles of plasma spectroscopy (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997)
Y I Lee, S P Sawan, T L Thiem, Y Y Teng and J Sneddon, Appl. Spectrosc. 46, 436 (1992)
X L Mao, M A Shannon, A J Fernandez and R E Russo, Appl. Spectrosc. 49, 1054 (1995)
W Pietch, B Dubreuil and A Briand, Appl. Phys. B61, 267 (1995)
J D Wu, Q Pan and S C Chen, Appl. Spectrosc. 51, 883 (1997)
M A Hafez, M A Khedr, F F Elaksher and Y E Gamal, Plasma Source Sci. Technol. 12, 185 (2003)
J M Gomba, C D’ Angelo, D Bertuccelli and G Bertuccelli, Spectrochimica Acta B56, 695 (2001)
NIST Atomic Spectra Database, http://physics.nist.gov
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Unnikrishnan, V.K., Alti, K., Kartha, V.B. et al. Measurements of plasma temperature and electron density in laser-induced copper plasma by time-resolved spectroscopy of neutral atom and ion emissions. Pramana - J Phys 74, 983–993 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12043-010-0089-5
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12043-010-0089-5