Comprehensive theoretical and experimental study of plasma plume dynamics across magnetic field

Abstract

Dynamics of laser-produced plasma plume in the presence of magnetic field has been investigated theoretically and experimentally. A mathematical model has been proposed to estimate the time variation of axial dimension, expansion velocity and effective deceleration of the plasma plume across the magnetic field. The numerical solutions are also verified with analytical solutions. In order to validate the theoretical model, two directional, time-resolved images of laser-produced nickel and tungsten plasmas have been recorded in different magnetic field. The simulated plasma dynamics is compared with experimental data for significantly different atomic masses of ablated species, expand in wide range of magnetic field, ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 T. Most of the dynamical features for the both, diamagnetic and beyond the diamagnetic region e.g., temporal variation of plume dimension, characteristic time duration of diamagnetic behaviour, bubble radius and plasma instability are well captured by theoretical model with reasonable agreement with experimental observations.