Abstract

Time-resolved plasma emission spectroscopy was used to characterize the energy coupling and temperature rise associated with single, 10-ns pulsed laser ablation of metallic particles bound to transparent substrates. Plasma associated with Fe(I) emission lines originating from steel microspheres was observed to cool from $>\mathrm{24,000}$ to $\sim \mathrm{15,000}\mathrm{K}$ over $\sim 220\mathrm{ns}$ as ${\tau }^{-0.28}$, consistent with radiative losses and adiabatic gas expansion of a relatively free plasma. Simultaneous emission lines from Si(II) associated with the plasma etching of the ${\mathrm{SiO}}_2$ substrate were observed yielding higher plasma temperatures, $\sim \mathrm{35,000}\mathrm{K}$, relative to the Fe(I) plasma. The difference in species temperatures is consistent with plasma confinement at the microsphere-substrate interface as the particle is ejected, and is directly visualized using pump-probe shadowgraphy as a function of pulsed laser energy.

© 2015 Optical Society of America

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