A Brief Overview about Laser-Ablated Molybdenum Plasma Properties

Abstract

First step in molybdenum isotope separation for medical purposes project, based in laser ablation followed by electromagnetic separation methods, is the characterization of ablated plasma plume. In this work, a depth profile emission spectroscopy study of laser-ablated molybdenum plasma expanding on air at atmospheric pressure was performed, considering Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium and one-dimensional uniform expanding models. Plasma temperature, electron density, electron population distribution and electron impact width parameter were evaluated along plasma expansion axis and reach average values of 15000 K,1018cm-3, 1% of electron populationat 4d45s6sstate and (0.017±0.008) nm, respectively. Furthermore, mean velocity of (5.0±0.7) km/sand the plasma lifetime that was (160± 14)ns for length equal to (1.80±0.05) mm weremeasured. So, this work includes a description of mainly plasma plume parameters, which permits a discussion for isotope separation methods related to laser ablation.