Examining the role of magnetic fields in plasma behavior and surface evolution of a Mg alloy with varied irradiances in a femtosecond laser treatment

Title Examining the role of magnetic fields in plasma behavior and surface evolution of a Mg alloy with varied irradiances in a femtosecond laser treatment
Author
Keywords
Abstract

This paper reports the effect of a magnetic field on plasma parameters and surface structuring of the Mg alloy after laser irradiation. Femtosecond pulses of a Ti:sapphire laser system (800聽nm, 35聽fs, 1聽KHz) are employed as the source of irradiation at various irradiances ranging from聽0.011PW/cm20.011PW/cm2聽to聽0.117PW/cm20.117PW/cm2聽to generate ablated Mg-alloy plasma. A transvers magnetic field (TMF) of strength 1.1 Tesla is employed to confine laser generated Mg plasma. All the measurements are performed with and without TMF. The two plasma parameters, i.e.,聽excitation temperature (TexcTexc) and electron number density (饾憶饾憭ne) of Mg plasma, have been evaluated by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis. It is observed that the values of聽TexcTexc聽and聽饾憶饾憭ne聽of laser produced plasma (LPP) of the Mg alloy are higher in the presence of a magnetic field as compared to the field free case. Both show initially an increasing trend with increasing laser irradiance and after attaining their respective maxima a decreasing trend is observed with the further increase of irradiance. The magnetic confinement validity is confirmed by analytically evaluating thermal beta (饾浗饾憽尾t), directional beta (饾浗饾憫尾d), confinement radius (R饾憦Rb), and diffusion time (t饾憫td) for LPP of the Mg alloy. To correlate the LPP parameters of the Mg alloy with surface modifications a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) analysis is performed. It was revealed that structures like laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSSs), agglomerates, islands, large sized bumps, along with channels and multiple ablative layers are observed. Distinct and well-defined surface structuring is observed in the presence of TMF as compared to the field free case. It is concluded that by applying an external magnetic field during laser irradiation, controlled material surface structuring is possible for fabrication of nanogratings and field emitters where spatial uniformity is critically important.

Year of Publication
2024
Journal
Applied Optics
Volume
63
Start Page
3585-3599
Issue
13
Date Published
2024/5/1
URL
https://opg.optica.org/ao/fulltext.cfm?uri=ao-63-13-3585&id=549325
DOI
10.1364/AO.523804
Download citation