Spatial confinement offered by a blocker on the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy of Ti plasma

Spatial confinement effects offered by a blocker on the laser-induced plasma parameters of titanium (Ti) are evaluated using the Optical Emission Spectroscopy technique. Nd:YAG (1064 nm, 10 ns) laser is used as an irradiation source. To observe the spatial confinement effects, an Al blocker at different distances of 4, 6, and 8 mm from the target is placed along the plume path. All the measurements are performed under the Ar environment at different pressures. It is observed that with increasing laser irradiance plasma parameters such as excitation temperature (Te) and electron number density (ne) increase, whereas it is vice versa true for increasing blocker distances. Without the blocker, the maximum values of Te and ne are about 7000 K and 1.4 × 1018 cm−3, respectively, at an Ar pressure of 50 Torr. A significant increase in emission intensity along with Te ≈ 9810 K and ne ≈ 2.2 × 1018 cm−3 is achieved in the presence of blocker. The results show that spatial confinement is responsible for the enhancement of Te and ne, which is attributed to the increased collisional frequency of plasma species after compression by shockwaves. The ablation pressure and shock pressure are also analytically evaluated and vary from 0.15 to 0.25 GPa and from 0.1 to 0.2 GPa, respectively, with increasing laser irradiance. With increasing blocker distances from 4 to 8 mm, the work done by reflected shockwaves to compress the plume varies from 0.02 to 0.002 mJ.