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Title: Laser ablation plume thermalization dynamics in background gases: Combined imaging, optical absorption and emission spectroscopy, and ion probe measurements

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/102245· OSTI ID:102245
 [1];  [1]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Solid State Div.

Combined diagnostic measurements are employed to characterize the penetration of energetic ablation plumes through background gases during a key transitional regime in which the ion flux is observed to split into distinct fast and slowed components. This apparently general phenomenon occurs over a limited range of distances at ambient pressures typically used for PLD (pulsed laser deposition) and may be important to film growth by PLD because a ``fast`` component of ions can arrive at the probe (or substrate) with little or no delay compared to propagation in vacuum. At longer distances, this ``fast`` component is completely attenuated, and only slowed distributions of ions are observed. Interestingly, this ``fast`` component is easily overlooked in imaging studies because the bright plume luminescence occurs in the slowed distribution. Time- and spatially-resolved optical absorption and emission spectroscopy are applied to experimentally determine the composition of the ``fast`` and ``slow`` propagating plume components for a single-component target ablation (yttrium) into an inert gas (argon) for correlation with quantitative imaging and ion probe measurements. The yttrium/argon system was chosen because optical absorption spectroscopy of both Y and Y+ was simultaneously possible and the inert nature of argon. Experimental results for several other systems, including Si/Ar, Si/He, YBCO/O{sub 2} are presented to illustrate variations in scattering mechanisms.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-84OR21400
OSTI ID:
102245
Report Number(s):
CONF-9505219-2; ON: DE95017429; TRN: 95:020512
Resource Relation:
Conference: 3. international conference on laser ablation (COLA `95), Strasbourg (France), 22-26 May 1995; Other Information: PBD: Feb 1995
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English