Temperature and electron density distributions of laser-induced plasmas generated with an iron sample at different ambient gas pressures

Intensity, temperature and electron density distributions of laser-induced plasmas (LIPS) have been measured by emission spectroscopy with two-dimensional spatial resolution and temporal resolution. The plasmas have been generated with an iron sample at different pressures of air, in the range 10-1000 mbar. An experimental system based in an imaging spectrometer equipped with an intensified CCD detector has been used to obtain the spectra with two-dimensional spatial resolution. The evolution of the intensity distributions is described by the blast wave model only at initial times. The temperature distributions are shown to correspond to a slight difference between the intensity distributions of two Fe I emission lines that have a high difference of their upper energy levels (3.38 eV). The electron density distributions have similar features to those of the temperature distributions. The features of the intensity and temperature distributions show a significant change with the ambient gas pressure: they have separated maxima in the plasmas generated at pressures below 100 mbar, whereas at higher pressures, the maxima of the two distributions coincide. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V All rights reserved.