Collision Dynamics Of Laser Produced Carbon Plasma Plumes

We present preliminary experimental observations of the collision processes between two orthogonal laser produced plasmas in a low pressure neutral gas background. A Nd:YAG laser, 340 mJ, 3.5 ns, at 1.06 mu m, operating at 10 Hz, is used in the experiments. The main laser beam is divided in two beams by a 50% beam splitter, and then focused over two rotating graphite targets, with characteristic fluence 3.5 J/cm(2). Experiments are conducted in a range from a base pressure of 0.3 mTorr, up to 50 mTorr argon. The dynamics of the laser plasmas is characterized by time resolved and time integrated optical emission spectroscopy (OES), with 20 ns and 10 ms time resolution, and 50 ns time resolved plasma imaging of visible plasma emission. Clear effects of the neutral gas background on the post-collision plasma dynamics are identified. The overall dynamics of the post-collision plasma is found to be consistent with high collisionality of the carbon plasma plumes, which results in full stagnation on collisioning.