Study of dynamics of glass plasma induced by Nd:YAG laser in external magnetic field

Abstract

A Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm, 8 ns) is focused on glass target to generate plasma in the presence of external magnetic field in air. The variable transverse magnetic field is applied by an assembly of electromagnetic poles to create uniform magnetic field in the range of 0.1 to 0.8 T. In the absence of external magnetic field the plasma plume expands almost spherical, perpendicular to the target surface. In the presence of transverse external magnetic field there is an increase in radial expansion and plume confines in a certain region within magnetic field. The dynamics of glass plasma is investigated by capturing plume images by charged-coupled device CCD video camera. The images are captured for different values of applied magnetic field strength. The irradiated glass material is collected on aluminum substrate and surface morphology is analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM).