Optical Emission Spectroscopy Characterization of Nanosecond Pulsed Laser Ablation of ZnCd Plasma Plume

Abstract

This work used spectroscopic plasma emission analysis to investigate the parameters of Zn–Cd plasma formed in the atmosphere by a Q-switched Nd:YAG nanosecond laser system emitting infrared (1064[Formula: see text]nm) laser light with an energy output spanning 200[Formula: see text]mJ to 500[Formula: see text]mJ. The spectrometer was used to examine and record the emission spectrum profiles of (ZnCd), which helped to extract crucial plasma characteristics (i.e., [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. The electron density was measured using the Stark broadening, and the plasma temperature was calculated using the Boltzmann plot technique. The electron temperature was between 1.02[Formula: see text]eV and 1.39[Formula: see text]eV, and the electron density was between (39.05 and 50.66) [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]cm[Formula: see text]. The Debye length (l), the number of particles in the Debye sphere ([Formula: see text] and the plasma frequency ([Formula: see text] can all be estimated from the electron temperature ([Formula: see text] and the electron density ([Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]. Results indicate that plasma parameters are proportional to the energy of laser due to the increase in the intensity of spectral lines energy, and that plasma shielding of ZnCd increases with laser energy in the range of (1.20–1.23).