The plasma dynamics arising from laser photodetachment is discussed herein theoretically and experimentally. The hybrid fluid-kinetic model, where the positive ions and electrons are treated by the fluid theory and the negative ions are treated within the ballistic approximation, is extended and applied to the analysis of densities perturbed by laser photodetachment. The agreement between the theory and measured data confirms the validity of the considered plasma dynamics model. This model, including the positive ion perturbation, shows a good agreement with the time evolution and the spatial distribution of perturbed electron densities which are measured by a Langmuir probe inside and outside the laser beam. From the overshoot in the time evolution of perturbed electron current in the center of the laser beam, the positive ion temperature was found to be in the range 0.1–0.25 eV, while the electron temperature changes from 0.3 to 3.2 eV.

• Received 17 July 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.63.036408