Abstract
In this work, the effect of the sample temperature on the magnesium (Mg) and titanium (Ti) plasmas generated by a Q-switched Neodymium-doped Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (Nd:YAG) laser operating at its fundamental wavelength of 1064 nm has been investigated. We observed that increasing the sample temperature significantly enhanced the emission intensities of the plasmas. Comparing the emission peak intensities of the case of 100 °C to the case of 300 °C, we recorded a substantial enhancement of the peak intensities of the latter compared to the former. From these results it can be observed that increasing the sample temperature has a significant effect on the emission intensities of the plasmas. We also studied the plasma dynamics and found that increasing the sample temperature also decreases the air density around the Mg sample surface. The reduction in the air density resulted in a decrease in the radiation process and lowers collision probability. Furthermore, as the plasma expands, the plasma pressure also decreases. In addition, we also employed circular and square cavities to confine the titanium plasma, and investigated the effect of the sizes of the circular and square cavities on the titanium plasma. We observed a general improvement in the emission intensities with both the circular and square cavities and attributed this improvement to the plasma compression effect of the shock waves produced by the plasma within the cavities.
Highlights
Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been utilized in various fields such as forensics [1–3], pharmaceuticals [4], military and security [5,6], environmental analysis [7–9], archeological analyses [10–12] and material processes to analyze the target samples both qualitatively and quantitatively [13–16]
Comparing the electron temperatures of the case with sample temperatures with that without sample temperatures, we found that the electron temperatures of the case with sample temperatures were more enhanced as compared with the case without sample temperature
We investigated the effect of increasing the sample temperature of the laser-produced magnesium and titanium plasmas
Summary
Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been utilized in various fields such as forensics [1–3], pharmaceuticals [4], military and security [5,6], environmental analysis [7–9], archeological analyses [10–12] and material processes to analyze the target samples both qualitatively and quantitatively [13–16]. The field of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy has gained great attention from scientists from the fields of material sciences, plasma physics and analytical chemistry [17–19] all over the world due to its numerous applications in analyzing the elemental compositions of samples from solids [20], liquids [21] and gasses [22–25]. The distinctive feature of this analytical technique is that it is a non-destructive technique, because it uses an infinitesimal amount of the target material for the analysis [27]. It requires no sample preparation, has remote sensing capability [28] and it is a viable technique for in-situ measurements [21,29–31]. For LIBS analysis, the produced plasma should be optically thin and the condition of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) should be established [27]
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