Stopping power of a buffer gas for laser plasma debris mitigation

Abstract

The stopping power of a buffer gas against laser-plasma debris is quantitatively assessed by means of visualization techniques. For ablation of planar tin targets in an Ar ambient, an expanding wavefront was visualized, whose translation energy was rapidly reduced within a few millimeters above the target surface. The fastest debris component was along the normal to the target with an initial kinetic energy of 1.1 keV. The buffer gas efficiency changed in a line-of-sight-dependent way, thermalizing more efficiently the on-axis components. The maximum stopping power of the gas buffer was determined as high as 0.4 keV/mm. Due to the reduction in stopping power, nonlinearly with the debris kinetic energy, a gas buffer thickness of 10 mm is required at the studied atmospheric pressure in order to mitigate high energy debris below a fiducial threshold of 0.1 keV.