Retrieval of currents of multiply charged ions emitted from laser-produced carbon plasma

Abstract

The emission of ions from laser-produced carbon plasmas is investigated by a deconvolution of ion collector signals. The deconvolution is based on the use of Kelly and Dreyfus function expressing the time-resolved ion current to recover hidden peaks in an ion collector signal. The parameters of recovered C ^q+ (1 ≤ q ≤ 6) currents make possible the quantification of properties of laser-produced plasmas. The drift and peak velocities of C ^q+ ions, the abundance of ions and the plasma temperature are presented in the dependence on focused laser beam energy. The carbon plasma was generated employing either single 9-ns pulses of second harmonics (532 nm) of Nd:YAG laser or pulses repeated at a stable repetition rate of 30 Hz.

Keywords:

• Laser-produced plasma
• TOF spectra deconvolution
• Ion energy distribution
• Carbon ions
• Ion collector

Acknowledgements

This work was partly supported by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (project AV0Z10100523).