Spectroscopic, imaging, and probe diagnostics of laser plasma plumes expanding between confining surfaces

Laser plasma plumes were generated in aluminum rectangular cavities of fixed depth (6 mm) and varying height (2.0, 1.5, and 1.0 mm). Space and time resolved visible emission spectroscopy, gated intensified visible imaging, and Langmuir probe diagnostics were utilized to diagnose the evolution of the confined plasma plumes in comparison to freely expanding plasma plume generated from ablation of a planar target. The constrained plasma behavior displayed a multiphase history. Early stage interactions (t<100 ns) resulted in enhanced continuum and line emission, shockwave formation and plasma plume rebound. Later phase, long duration plasma-surface interactions (t>160 ns) resulted in sustained "decay," i.e., a rapid termination of continuum emission, in concert with decreases in peak electron density (N-e) and plasma temperature (T). This later phase originates from loss mechanisms which bleed the plasma plume of thermal energy and charged particles. These loss mechanisms increase in magnitude as the duration of the plasma-surface interaction increases. The transition from enhancement phase, originating from hydrodynamic containment, and plasma-surface collisions, to decay phase is described and occurs for each cavity at a different point in the space time history. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3505801]