Spectroscopic Characterization of Laser Ablated Germanium Plasma

Abstract

In the present study, the germanium (Ge) sample has been studied by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy which leads to the formation of plasma plume in the air. This research work comprises on pure Ge sample, and it has been studied using laser irradiance 1.831011 watt.cm-2 and Q-Switched Nd:YAG laser pulse (λ ~ 1064 nm wavelength and  ~ 5 ns pulse width). The spatially resolved plasma plume parameters are investigated, such as variation of electron temperature Te and electron number density ne as a function of detector position. These parameters show variation in the plasma plume and yield electron temperature Te from 12340 to 7640 ± 1200 K. Whereas electron number density ne varies from 3.61017 to 1.601017 cm-3 with the change in detector position is moving away from plasma plume from 0 to 3 mm. The results show that electron temperature Te and electron number density ne are estimated from the Boltzmann plot method and by using Lorentzian function at spectral line using FWHM full width at half maximum at 265.11 nm (4p5s 3 p2 → 4p 2 3 p2) wavelength of Ge (I) line, respectively.