Laser-generated plasma as a spectroscopic light source
Laser generated plasma as spectroscopic light source
SEARCH · Engineering Papers
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Laser generated plasma as spectroscopic light source
The paper describes the space-charge-limited beams produced by the plasma blowoffs generated by 20-MW bursts of 1.06-micron radiation from an active Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. Laser power densities near 10 to the 11th/sq cm on solid targets generate thermalized plasma plumes which drift to a 15-kV gridded extraction gap where the ions are extracted, accelerated, and electrostatically focused; the spatially defined ion beams are then magnetically analyzed to determine the charge state content in the beams formed from carbon, aluminum, copper, and lead targets. This technique preserves time-of-flight (TOF) information in the plasma drift region, which permits plasma ion temperatures and mass flow velocities to be determined from the Maxwellian ion curve TOF shapes for the individual charge species.
A laser-generated plasma acoustic point source is used to directly measure the point spread function (PSF) of a microphone phased array. In beamforming analysis of microphone phased array data, the true acoustic field is convolved with the array's PSF. By directly measuring the PSF, corrections to the array analysis can be computed and applied. The acoustic source is measured in an open-jet aeroacoustic facility to evaluate the effects of sampling rate, microphone installation, source shift, reflections, shear layer refraction and model presence. Results show that measurements exhibit behavior consistent with theory with regard to source shift and shear layer refraction. Application of a measured PSF in beamforming analysis shows the process provides an effective in-situ method for array calibration both with and without flow and allows for corrections to incorporate reflections and scattering. The technique improves the agreement of beamforming results with the true spectrum of a known source, especially in the presence of reflections.
The results of experiments performed to check the possibility of stimulated emission in the extreme vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) by an Al(+3) laser-generated plasma are reported. It is concluded that the spectral line intensity anomalies previously observed are not due to population inversion.
The design and imaging properties of an XUV (extreme ultraviolet, 200-550 A) normal-incidence slitless spectrograph, the spectrum obtained from laser-generated plasmas, and the monochromatic plasma images are described. The electron temperature of the plasmas, electron density as a function of position in the plasma, and the thickness of material penetrated by the laser pulse are determined. Elements from Z = 6 to Z = 28 were investigated, in addition to Nb. Secondary plasma-emission regions were observed 2-3 mm from the flat (thick or thin) targets. Time-integrated photographs of the expanding plasmas were recorded by the slitless spectrograph. A technique for obtaining time-resolved images of the plasmas in picosecond time intervals is proposed, and problems in the design of a stigmatic XUV spectrograph are discussed.
Time-resolved observations of the spin-changing, or 'intersystem' emission at 2669.157 A obtained by the ion storage technique are used to measure the transition probability of the 3s2 1S0 - 3s3p 3P1 exp 0 line in Al II. A laser-generated plasma was used as the source of the metastable Al(+) ions. The A-value result obtained for the intersystem transition is 3.33 + or - 0.23 x 10 to the 3rd/sec at the 90-percent confidence level; this value is used to derive two line-intensity ratios which involve the intersystem line as a function of electron density and temperature.
The Potassium-Argon Laser Experiment( KArLE), is composed of two main instruments: a spectrometer as part of the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) method and a Mass Spectrometer (MS). The LIBS laser ablates a sample and creates a plasma cloud, generating a pit in the sample. The LIBS plasma is measured for K abundance in weight percent and the released gas is measured using the MS, which calculates Ar abundance in mols. To relate the K and Ar measurements, total mass of the ablated sample is needed but can be difficult to directly measure. Instead, density and volume are used to calculate mass, where density is calculated based on the elemental composition of the rock (from the emission spectrum) and volume is determined by pit morphology. This study aims to reduce the uncertainty for KArLE by analyzing pit volume relationships in several analog materials and comparing methods of pit volume measurements and their associated uncertainties.