Analysis of ion radiation characteristics in the middle and late stages of laser-produced Cd plasma evolution in vacuum

•The EUV spectra of the middle and late stage of expansion of laser-produced Cd plasma were measured in the 8.5-12 nm region, using a spatiotemporally resolved laser-produced plasma spectroscopic technique.•The 4p-6s resonance transition arrays from Cd4+ to Cd7+ ions dominate the spectrum, which has been identified with the aid of the Hartree-Fock (HF) method with relativistic corrections (HFR) using the Cowan codes.•Several new spectral features were established for the first time and were tentatively assigned.•Using the steady-state collisional-radiative model (CR), the plasma parameters have been obtained by comparing the experimental and simulated spectra, which have given the best agreement for the relative ion populations consistent with the observed spectra.•The evolution behavior of the rate coefficients with an electron density and an electron temperature have been discussed in detail, and several physical aspects involving in plasma expansion were provided.