Characterization of Platinum and Gold ions emitted from laser produced plasmas using solid state nuclear track detectors

Investigations on key characteristics of ions emitted from Laser Induced plasmas are reported. A Q-switched Nd: YAG pulsed laser at 1064 nm, 9-14 ns and 1.1 MW, is focused on 4 N pure Gold (Au) and Platinum (Pt) targets to produce plasma plume. The ions thus emitted are detected by CR-39 Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors (SSNTD’s), placed at angles 0°, 30°, 60°, and 90° with respect to the target normal. The distances between the targets and detectors are 9 cm. The experiments are performed under a vacuum ∼10⁻³ torr and the ion tracks are recorded on SSNTD’s for 300 laser shots. The etched detectors are analyzed with the help of Motic Images Optical Microscope (Motic Advance 3.1). The flux of ions exhibits anisotropic behavior where as maximum energies of these ions are not only anisotropic but also forward peaked.