Experimental Research on Impulse Coupling Characteristics and Plasma Plume Dynamics of a Nanosecond Pulsed Laser Irradiated Aluminum Target

The impulse generated by ablating aluminum targets was investigated in this study using the micro-impulse measurement method with a torsion pendulum, and the plasma plume characteristics were researched using fast photography and optical emission spectroscopy. The experiment was carried out with a pulsed laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm and a pulse duration of 8.7 ns. The fluence varied from 5.69 J/cm
²
to 33.67 J/cm
²
. The impulse coupling coefficients were obtained from the impulse measurements and the images of the plasma plume were recorded with a gate width of 500 ns. The results indicated that the variation of the impulse coupling coefficient was affected by the change of the laser fluence and the decline of the coefficient at high fluence was because of the plasma shielding effect. The intense radiation region located above the target surface in the corresponding plume was evident. Additionally, the differential coupling coefficient was presented and compared with the impulse coupling coefficient. The plasma temperature and the electron number density were estimated with the Boltzmann plot method and the Stark broadening method, respectively, using optical emission spectroscopy. Furthermore, the relative energy coupling efficiency was deduced from the plume front positions to determine the influence of the plume expansion dynamics on the impulse coupling. The obtained results showed that the variation trend of efficiency versus the laser fluence was similar to that of the impulse coupling coefficient.