Spectroscopic investigation of stagnation region in laterally colliding plasmas: Dependence of ablating target material and plasma plume separation

Abstract

The effect of the atomic mass of the ablating target on the formation and expansion of the interaction region in laterally colliding plasmas has been studied. Fast imaging and optical emission spectroscopy have been utilized as diagnostic tools to investigate the characteristic features of the seed plasma as well as interaction zone formed by different target materials (i.e., carbon, aluminium, and nickel). The present results reveal that dynamical, spectral, and geometrical features of the induced interaction zone depend on the mass of the ablated species and spatial separation between the interacting plumes. It has been observed that a sharp, intense, and more directional interaction zone is formed by the interaction of heavier plume species in comparison to that observed for a lighter atomic mass target. Further, the difference in the plasma parameters in seed and interaction regions are explained from the analysis of emission from both the regions for aluminium plasma.