Electron temperature and density measurements of laser induced germanium plasma

Abstract

The germanium plasma produced by the fundamental harmonics (1064 nm) of Nd:YAG laser in single and double pulse configurations have been studied spectroscopically. The plasma is characterized by measuring the electron temperature using the Boltzmann plot method for neutral and ionized species and electron number density as a function of laser irradiance, ambient pressure, and distance from the target surface. It is observed that the plasma parameters have an increasing trend with laser irradiance (9–33 GW/cm2) and with ambient pressure (8–250 mbar). However, a decreasing trend is observed along the plume length up to 4.5 mm. The electron temperature and electron number density are also determined using a double pulse configuration, and their behavior at fixed energy ratio and different interpulse delays is discussed.