Laser-produced plasma from solid CuCl

Energy transfer processes in excimer laser ablation of inorganic solids were studied by optical emission spectroscopy of the ablated material during the first few microseconds following the laser pulse. Cuprous chloride was chosen for this study because, in a survey of many materials irradiated (AgCl, BN, ZnO, GaAs, Ge, SiO/sub 2/), CuCl was the only material that had detectable molecular emission. The presence of molecular emission is critical because the width of the molecular emission bands is fluence-dependent and thereby allows determination of the vibrational-rotational temperature as a function of fluence. Optical emission spectra from the plasma produced by irradiation of polycrystalline CuCl under vacuum by pulsed excimer laser radiation at 248 and 308 nm show well-resolved molecular emission bands as well as weak atomic Cu lines for fluences psi ≥ 0.4 J/cm/sup 2/