Evaluation of laser-induced plasma distribution using a Hilbert's algorithm

Laser processing is a technique based on the interaction between a laser and the substance for cutting, drilling, cleaning, welding, and other operations on metallic or non-metallic materials. It is widely used in some important fields of the national economy such as automobiles, microelectronics, electrical appliances, aviation, metallurgy, medical treatment, and machinery manufacturing. In the process of high-powered laser processing, a large amount of plasma will be generated and there will be the obvious inverse Bremsstrahlung absorption (IBA) near the plasma plume. The effect of laser processing will be significantly deteriorated due to the absorption of laser photons and changes in light intensity distribution. Besides, laser-induced plasma is produced during the interaction between a high-powered laser and materials. Also, it has the very important value in the research of analyzing the high-powered laser processing. To fully understand the laserinduced plasma, this paper uses the Hilbert procedure to numerically investigate the plasma generated in the laser processing. The method firstly acquires the images corresponding to the fringes of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer by using the detection after a probe laser beam passing through the plasma plume. Then, a series of operations such as the spectrum shift, unwrap, and Abel inverse transformation are performed after a fast Fourier transform (FFT). Finally, the density distribution of plasma can be calculated. This methodology provides a new algorithm for the research of laserinduced plasma, and it also valuable for the understanding the high-powered laser processing process.