Fast photography of XeCl laser-induced plasma of graphite in vacuum and in nitrogen atmosphere

Fast photography with a gated intensified close-coupled device camera was applied to provide a visualization of the temporal and spatial evolution of chemical species in a plasma induced by a 308 nm laser during graphite ablation, in vacuum and in nitrogen atmosphere. A sequence of frames of the luminous plume was recorded, using narrow interference filters, and plasma expansion velocity was estimated from the acquired images. Present observations agree with optical emission spectroscopic investigations performed under the same experimental conditions.