Energy spectra of laser-produced ions

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Abstract
This paper presents results on mass‐resolved and time‐resolved energy spectra of the ions produced by the interaction of a laser pulse with an absorbing surface. A Q‐switched CO2 laser with a pulse width of 775 nsec and a power density at the target of approximately 7 × 106 W/cm2 was used to produce the ion emission inside a time‐of‐flight mass spectrometer. A method of data reduction was developed that yields the time development of the energy spectrum during each laser pulse with a resolution of approximately 100 nsec. The energy distribution of ions changes from one containing mostly low‐energy species during the early part of the laser pulse to a spectrum peaked at its high‐energy end near 200 eV later in the laser pulse.