A SIMPLE AND COMPACT SYSTEM FOR ENERGY, CHARGE AND MASS ANALYSIS OF IONS FORMED IN LASER-PRODUCED PLASMAS

A system has been designed to study the energy distributions and the c hange and mass composition of the ions emitted by laser-produced plasm as. A Nd:YAG laser is focused on a solid sample in vacuum, providing l aser power densities of about 10(10) W cm-2. Multiply charged ions are formed with energies ranging from several eV to keV. The time-of-flig ht technique combined with energy selection by means of an electrostat ic analyzer was used to separate the ions of different masses and char ges, obtaining a mass resolution of 180 with a compact size. This pape r describes the experimental system and some illustrative results abou t ion energy distributions and their dependence on the laser power den sity. Also some examples of mass and charge separation are presented, showing the applicability of the system to multielemental analysis.