Time-resolved investigations of laser-induced plasmas generated by nanosecond bursts in the millijoule burst energy regime

Laser-induced plasmas are investigated during laser micro structuring of a C 75 steel alloy using laser bursts that consist of nanosecond laser pulses under atmospheric pressure. The influence of the laser burst mode — single and collinear double pulses — on plasma dynamics and ablation efficiency is investigated for burst energies in the millijoule regime. Electron density and excitation temperatures measured as a function of time. The results are compared with published data looking for changes of the plasma parameters scaling with the burst energy over two orders of magnitude. For collinear double pulses at burst energies of 1–2 mJ an increase of the ablation rate by a factor of three to four compared to single pulses was observed.