Concentrations and velocity distributions of positive ions in laser ablation of copper

It is shown that the generation of secondary electrons by excited neutrals hitting a surface makes the so-called probe method unsuited for measuring the positive ion fraction in laser ablation plumes. Experiments have been performed in a modified set-up, in which the disturbance by secondary electrons is avoided. For a typical case of Cu irradiated in ultra-high vacuum by nanosecond excimer laser pulses of 3 J cm^–2 the ionized fraction is about 10^–8 at a distance of 60 cm. This number is in fair agreement with Saha-Langmuir predictions based on the assumption of local thermal equilibrium at an estimated temperature of about 3000K. Angular-resolved time-of-flight measurements show that there are three different ion velocity distributions. A slow contribution (kinetic energy 2eV) with an angular distribution peaked along the normal, and two fast, isotropic contributions (kinetic energy 20–50 eV). The fast contributions are attributed to ions involved in a Coulomb explosion.