Time evolution of the Infrared Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy of DNA bases Guanine and Adenine

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) of DNA bases Guanine and Adenine was studied using a high-power CO2 pulsed laser (λ=10.591 μm, τ FWHM=64 ns and fluences ranging from 25 to 70 J/cm2). The strong emission of the adenine and guanine plasma, collected using a high-resolution spectrometer, at medium-vacuum conditions (4 Pa) and at 1 mm from the target, exhibits excited molecular bands of CN (B2 Σ +–X2 Σ +) and excited neutral H and ionized N+ and C+. The medium-weak emission is due to excited species C2+, C3+, N, O, O+, O2+ and molecular band systems of \(\mathrm{C}_{2}(\mathrm{d}^{3}\varPi_{\mathrm{g}}\mbox{--}\mathrm{a}^{3}\varPi_{\mathrm{u}};\ \mathrm{D}^{1}\varSigma_{\mathrm{u}}^{+}\mbox{--}\mathrm{X}^{1}\varSigma_{\mathrm{g}}^{+})\), OH(A2 Σ +–X2 Π), NH(A3 Π–X3 Σ −), CH(A2 Π–X2 Π), \(\mathrm{N}_{2}^{+}(\mathrm{B}^{2}\varSigma_{\mathrm{u}}^{+}\mbox{--} \mathrm{X}^{2}\varSigma_{\mathrm{g}}^{+})\) and N2(C3 Π u–B3 Π g). We focus our attention on the temporal evolution of different atomic/ionic and molecular species. The velocity distributions for various (different) species were obtained from time-of-flight (TOF) measurements. Intensities of some lines from C+ were used for determining electron temperature and their Stark-broadened profiles were employed to estimate the temporal evolution of electron density.