Development of a Time-of-Flight Measurement Technique in Plasma Induced by a CO2 Laser

Experiments on the irradiation of a carbon target with CO2-laser pulses in the free-running mode at a radiation-flux density of 1.3 x 10(11) W/cm(2) and the time-of-flight technique for measuring the characteristics of the plasma ion component are described. The characteristics of the ion component of plasma that expands along the normal to the target and the statistical spread of the mean values were obtained. As a result of the measurements, the energy spectra of the plasma expansion and the partial ion currents at a chosen distance of the plasma drift from the target were reconstructed. The high time resolution of this technique made it possible to reconstruct the escape times of individual groups of ions from a heated region on the scale of the duration of the heating laser pulse.