Time resolved imaging spectroscopy applied to the analysis of plasmas generated by femtosecond laser.

F. C. ALVIRA; G. M. BILMES

Izmir

Conferencia; XI International Conference on laser ablation; 2011

The spatial and temporal evolution of laser-generated plasmas is  of interest not only to  study the physics of plasma  itself, but because it improves  application of techniques such as LIBS, (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy), that use the emission of these plasmas for the characterization of materials, products and processes. Time resolved hyperspectral spectroscopy is a tool for the study of these plasmas. Its implementation requires the use of spectrometers with both spectral and spatial resolution (imaging spectrometers), and time resolved detection. With the aim to identify the best space-time conditions that optimize the spectral information obtained in LIBS, in this paper we have applied time resolved hyperspectral spectroscopy to the study of plasmas generated in copper by femtosecond laser pulses. We recorded the spatial and temporal distribution of the intensity of the main emission lines of neutral and ions of each species. With these data we have determined plasma electron densities with temporal and spatial resolution. Our results show that the electron density has a maximum in a region relatively far from the sample.