Abstract

Pulsed discharge of nitrogen was shown to be a very effective means to generate atomic nitrogen whose reactivity favored the synthesis of nitrides. In order to form aluminum nitride, such a plasma was allowed to interact with the plume generated by pulsed-laser ablation of aluminum. The plasma reaction was studied by time- and space-resolved optical emission spectroscopy. Emissions from ionic species of nitrogen (N+ and N2+) in the reaction region were observed. They were believed to be excited by the shock front generated by the pulsed-laser ablation. The delay time between ablation and discharge could be tuned to maximize the N+ emission. That condition also produced the purest aluminum nitride powders.

Plasma plumes produced by laser ablation of Al with single and double pulse schemes

N. Smijesh, Kavya H. Rao, D. Chetty, I. V. Litvinyuk, and R. T. Sang
Opt. Lett. 43(24) 6081-6084 (2018)

Time-resolved imaging and optical spectroscopy of plasma plumes during pulsed laser material deposition

Rosario C. Sausa
Appl. Opt. 56(3) B123-B133 (2017)

Dynamics of laser-ablated carbon plasma: formation of C₂ and CN

Archana Kushwaha and R. K. Thareja
Appl. Opt. 47(31) G65-G71 (2008)

Characteristics of plasma plume in ultrafast laser ablation with a weakly ionized air channel

Huaming Hou, Bo Yang, Xianglei Mao, Vassilia Zorba, Pengxu Ran, and Richard E. Russo
Opt. Express 26(10) 13425-13435 (2018)

Optical emission enhancement using laser ablation combined with fast pulse discharge

Weidong Zhou, Kexue Li, Qinmei Shen, Qiaoling Chen, and Jingming Long
Opt. Express 18(3) 2573-2578 (2010)