Time resolved diagnostics of ions in colliding carbon plasmas

We report a comparative study of the dynamic behaviour of ions at different pressures in laser ablated colliding and single plasma plumes using 2D imaging, optical emission spectroscopy (OES) and a retarding field analyser (RFA). 2D imaging shows the splitting of plasma plumes due to different velocities of various plasma species. OES shows enhancement in abundance of ionic species with their presence for a longer time in colliding plume. C-2 molecular formation is seen at later time in colliding plume compared to single plume and is attributed to dominating collisional processes in the colliding region of the plumes. The time of flight distribution of ions traced by the RFA shows the variation with change in fluence as well as ambient pressure for both colliding and single plume. Time of flight analysis of ions also shows the appearance of a fast peak in ion signal due to acceleration of ions at larger fluence. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.