Emission features of femtosecond laser ablated carbon plasma in ambient helium

We investigated the optical emission features of plasmas produced by 800 nm, 40 fs ultrafast laser pulses on a carbon target in the presence of ambient helium or nitrogen gases at varied pressures. Fast photography employing intensified charge coupled device, optical emission spectroscopy, and temporally spatially resolved optical time of flight emission spectroscopy were used as diagnostic tools. Spatio-temporal contours of excited neutral, ionic, as well as molecular carbon species in the plume were obtained using time of flight emission spectroscopy. These contours provided detailed account of molecular species evolution and expansion dynamics and indicate that three-body recombination is a major mechanism for carbon dimers generation in ultrafast laser ablation plumes in the presence of ambient gas. A systematic comparison of the emission features from ns and fs laser ablation carbon plumes as well as their expansion in ambient helium is also given. C2 vibrational temperatures were estimated during carbon plasma expansion with lower values in ambient helium compared to nitrogen and showed decreasing values with respect to space and ambient gas pressure. VC 2013 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4803096]