Laser-generated Cu plasma in vacuum and in nitrogen gas

Abstract A pulsed ns IR laser at about 1010 W/cm2 intensity is employed to irradiate a Cu target placed in a vacuum and in nitrogen gas. The produced plasma is characterized in terms of emitted ions and photons as a function of the nitrogen pressure in the chamber. The mechanisms of ion gas interactions are investigated in terms of Cu ion energy loss and X-ray attenuation using an ion collector and a SiC detector. A fast CCD camera in the visible region has produced the collision images of the ions with the nitrogen molecules. A plasma temperature of about 44 eV, an emission of soft X-rays up to about 100 eV, an ablation yield of about 2.4 × 1015 atoms/pulse, a maximum Cu ion acceleration of 1.4 keV and a maximum ionization up to Cu9+ were measured in high vacuum.