Laser ablation of a silicon carbide target: a time-of-flight quadrupole mass spectrometric study

Laser ablation of a SiC target was attempted to investigate the formation mechanisms and expansion dynamics of ionic species including silicon carbide cluster ions in the plume. Time-of-arrival distributions of ions were analysed to obtain their mean velocities and spatial distributions. Laser-plume interaction was examined by illuminating the plume with a UV laser pulse. Si₂C was found to be the major photodissociation product of silicon carbide cluster ions. PACS 82.40.Ra; 79.20.Ds; 79.20.La