Laser plume spectroscopy. 2. Graphite yttrium-stabilised and zirconium oxide targets

Spectral and kinetic properties of a plume formed in the vicinity of a graphite and a pressed yttrium-stabilised zirconium oxide (YSZ) powder targets irradiated in air by a 10.6-μm pulsed CO₂ laser with a peak power of 1.5–9 kW at room temperature are studied. The plume propagated at right angles to the target surface and at an angle of 45° to the laser radiation. The spectral and kinetic characteristics of its luminescence were measured discretely along the entire length of the plume. It is shown that the YSZ plume as well as the graphite plume is a flux of nonequilibrium gaseous plasma at a temperature of about 4.7–3.1 kK, in which a luminescence of YO and ZrO radicals is excited.