Influence of gas pressure on the magnetized plasma parameters of laser-induced breakdown

In this study, the effect of environment gas and working pressure of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy from ZnO: Al composite target (AZO) enhanced by an external magnetic field on the magnetized characteristics and emission spectra of plasma were investigated. The plasma was induced by a Q-switched nanosecond Nd: YAG laser at a constant pulse laser energy of 300 mJ at different pressures of 0.08, 0.2, 0.4, and 760 Torr in air and argon gas. The atomic and ionic emission lines increased in intensity directly with the working pressure. The plasma temperature (T_e) and electron number density (n_e) were determined at the different environmental conditions according to the intensity-ration method, and Stark broadening effect, respectively. Both n_e and T_e increased with increasing pressure and with the presence of magnetic field as a result of confining effect. The line profile appeared with high broadening at atmospheric pressure compared with vacuumed plasma. The Larmur radius and confinement factor β increased with working pressure. From another hand, using Ar instead of air caused slightly reduced n_e at low pressure, while T_e has the opposite behavior.