Energy distribution of charged particles in laser erosion plume on ablation of solid metallic targets with excimer laser

The Langmuir probe was used to study erosion plume resulting from ablation of a tantalum target in vacuum with excimer laser (308 nm) radiation. The spatial and temporal dependencies of electron and ion probe currents were obtained in real time. Relying upon a series of dependencies of electron probe currents on the value of probe potential,; electron temperature of different plume regions was taken at various distances from the target. It was established that the plume electron temperature is non-uniform. The ion concentration in the plume determined at various distances from the target.