Electron temperature and electron number density measurements in laser ablation Z-pinch experiments of Al2O3.

Aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) plasma was generated using the Ti:Sapphire/Nd:glass laser and Z-pinch pulse-power generator at the University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada Terawatt Facility. To determine the electron temperature, we use the Boltzmann plot method for the transitions (Al III 4d ²D_3/2 → 4p ²P_1/2) at 451.2564 nm, (Al III 4d ²D_5/2 → 4p ²P_3/2) at 452.9194 nm, (Al III 4p ²P_3/2 → 4s ²S_1/2) at 569.6603, and (Al III 4p ²P_1/2 → 4s ²S_1/2) at 572.2728 nm. Simultaneously, Mach–Zehnder laser interferometry was used to measure the electron number density. We compared simulated spectra obtained from PrismSPECT with electron number density and temperature measurements, and the electron temperature was found to range from 1.8 to 2.8 eV, while the electron number density was found to range from 2.3 × 10¹⁷ to 6.9 × 10¹⁷ cm⁻³ early in the pinched plasma formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]