Optical emission features of laterally colliding laser-produced plasmas at different ambient pressures

Abstract

Optical emission characteristics of seed plasma and stagnation region of laterally colliding laser produced aluminium plasmas are investigated under various background gas pressures of air and argon ambient. The intensity of ionic and neutral emissions from seed plasma region increases with the increase of ambient pressure. Neutral emission from the stagnation region increases whereas the intensity of ionic emission decreases with the increase of ambient pressure. Decrease of collision rate between the seed plasmas results in the decrease of ionic emission from the interaction region. For higher inter seed plume separation, maximum spectral emission from stagnation region is observed at an intermediate pressure range of 10−2 mbar. Emission intensity and the life time of both ionic and neutral emission are greater in heavier Ar ambient. In the case of seed plasmas, the electron density decreases whereas the electron temperature increases with the increase of ambient gas pressure and is greater in Ar ambient. The variations of plasma parameters are quite less in stagnation region.