Optical probe investigation of laser ablated carbon plasma plume in nitrogen ambient

We report the study of carbon plasma produced using 1064 nm laser in nitrogen ambient at atmospheric pressure using 2-dimensional fast imaging of ablated plume, optical emission spectroscopy, and optical probe at 532 nm for interferometry and shadowgraphy. The dominance of C2 and CN molecules over ionic species at later stages of expanding carbon plasma plume is reported. The observed ring structure in shadowgrams and change in the direction of fringe shift from positive to negative in recorded interferograms are correlated with the relative abundance of different species in the plasma plume as function of time delay with respect to ablating pulse. An agreement in observed onset time of formation of clusters/atomic species or low ionic species using different diagnostic techniques has been reported