Optical emission spectrometric characterization of plumes generated from laser-ablated Pr0.67Sr0.33MnO3

The composition and evolution of the laser ablated plasma generated from UV laser ablation of a Pr0.67Sr0.33MnO3 target in O-2 ambient have been inves tigated using a temporally and spatially resolved optical emission spectros copy. Besides the emission lines of excited metal atoms and ions such as Pr +*, Sr+*, Mn+*, Pr*, Sr* and Mn*, emission bands from MnO* were also observ ed. The temporal profiles of the plume emission showed that two emission co mponents of ablated species appeared in oxygen ambient in stead of only one in vacuum. The delay time and intensity of the emission were measured as a function of the observation distance from the target surface and the ambie nt gas pressure. Possible mechanism of plume evolution is discussed. (C) 19 99 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.