Spectroscopic Analysis of Chemical Species in Carbon Plasmas Induced by High-power IR CO2 Laser

This book describes certain fundamentals of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and the experimental results obtained from ultraviolet-visible-near infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) spectra induced by laser ablation of a graphite target. The characteristics of the spectral emission intensities from the different species have been investigated as functions of the ambient pressure, laser irradiance, delay time and distance from the target. Excitation, vibrational and rotational temperatures, as well as ionization degree and electron number density for some species were estimated. Time-gated spectroscopic studies have allowed estimation of time-of-flight (TOF) and propagation velocities for various emission species.