Faculty Publications
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Item Effect of Laser Beam Spot Size on the Dynamics of Ultrashort Laser-Produced Plasma in Vacuum(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2018) Sankar, P.; Shashikala, H.D.; HARILAL, S.S.; Philip, R.The hydrodynamic expansion features of a laser-produced plasma is governed by initial plume conditions and hence the spot size of the laser beam.1-3 In this work, we investigated the expansion dynamics of a laser produced-plasma as a function of laser spot diameter in a vacuum environment (10-5 Torr) using multiple diagnostic tools. The diagnostic tools used were space-and time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy, 2-D fast-gated self-emission imaging and ion analysis using Faraday cup. The plume dynamics measured for varying spot sizes involves intriguing physics and hence demands detailed investigations, in view of a multitude of applications of laser ablation (LA) including elemental detection (LIBS, LA-LIF etc.), micromachining, laser-welding, nano-structuring, ion beam generation and pulsed laser deposition. © 2018 IEEE.Item Ultrafast and short pulse optical nonlinearity in isolated, sparingly sulfonated water soluble graphene(Elsevier Ltd, 2017) Perumbilavil, S.; Sridharan, K.; Koushik, D.; Sankar, P.; MahadevanPillai, V.P.M.; Philip, R.We report the nonlinear optical properties of graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (rGO), sulfonated graphene oxide (S-rGO), and sparingly sulfonated water soluble graphene (WSG), measured under ultrafast (100 fs) and short pulse (300 ps, 50 ns) laser excitations at 800 nm, employing the open aperture Z-scan technique. The samples exhibit typical third order nonlinear optical behaviour including two-photon absorption (2 PA), reverse saturable absorption (RSA), and saturable absorption (SA). A significant variation in the nature of nonlinear absorption is seen when the laser pulse duration is changed. For example, RSA is prominent under nanosecond (ns) excitation, 2 PA is prevalent under femtosecond (fs) excitation, and SA is dominant under picosecond (ps) excitation. For comparison purposes the measurements are repeated using 5 ns laser pulses at 532 nm. RSA is enhanced in WSG in the nanosecond excitation domain, which can be attributed to the covalent bonding between p-phenyl-SO3H groups and sp2 graphitic planes. WSG exhibits a switching behaviour from SA to RSA upon increasing the excitation intensity under fs excitation. Results show that these graphene derivatives are potentially useful for saturable absorber and optical limiter device applications. © 2016 Elsevier LtdItem Ion dynamics of a laser produced aluminium plasma at different ambient pressures(Springer Verlag service@springer.de, 2018) Sankar, P.; Shashikala, H.D.; Philip, R.Plasma is generated by pulsed laser ablation of an Aluminium target using 1064 nm, 7 ns Nd:YAG laser pulses. The spatial and temporal evolution of the whole plasma plume, as well as that of the ionic (Al2+) component present in the plume, are investigated using spectrally resolved time-gated imaging. The influence of ambient gas pressure on the expansion dynamics of Al2+ is studied in particular. In vacuum (10?5 Torr, 10?2 Torr) the whole plume expands adiabatically and diffuses into the ambient. For higher pressures in the range of 1–10 Torr plume expansion is in accordance with the shock wave model, while at 760 Torr the expansion follows the drag model. On the other hand, the expansion dynamics of the Al2+ component, measured by introducing a band pass optical filter in the detection system, fits to the shock wave model for the entire pressure range of 10?2 Torr to 760 Torr. The expansion velocities of the whole plume and the Al2+ component have been measured in vacuum. These dynamics studies are of potential importance for applications such as laser-driven plasma accelerators, ion acceleration, pulsed laser deposition, micromachining, laser-assisted mass spectrometry, ion implantation, and light source generation. © 2017, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.Item Effect of laser beam size on the dynamics of ultrashort laser-produced aluminum plasma in vacuum(American Institute of Physics Inc. subs@aip.org, 2019) Sankar, P.; Shashikala, H.D.; Philip, R.In laser-produced plasma experiments, the diameter of the irradiating laser beam on the target surface is a major parameter that influences the ablation mechanisms, plasma emission intensity, charged particle ejection, and plume morphology. In this work, the expansion dynamics of an ultrashort laser-produced aluminum plasma is investigated as a function of the laser beam size on the target, using a combination of diagnostic tools, viz., optical emission spectroscopy, fast gated time-resolved imaging, and ion current measurements. A Ti:sapphire laser delivering 100 fs, 6 mJ pulses at 800 nm is used for producing plasma from a pure Al target placed in vacuum (10 -5 Torr) at different positions with respect to the geometrical focus of the beam. Optical emission spectroscopic analysis of the plasma shows that higher emission intensities and ion populations are obtained for smaller beam sizes. Time-resolved Intensified Charge Coupled Device (ICCD) imaging of the expanding plasma shows a spherical morphology for plumes produced by smaller beam sizes and a cylindrical morphology for those produced by larger beam sizes. Temporal profiles of ion emission measured using a Faraday cup are in agreement with ICCD data, featuring a dual peak structure for larger beam sizes indicating distinct slow and fast ionic species, arising from changes in the ablation mechanism for varying laser fluences. Plume expansion is modelled by free expansion for the fast species and by shock wave propagation for the slow species. Ion flux and velocities are relatively high for smaller beam sizes. These studies can be of potential importance for laser processing applications, including laser welding, drilling, and micromachining. © 2019 Author(s).Item Enhanced bremsstrahlung X-ray emission from Ag nanoparticles irradiated by ultrashort laser pulses(Elsevier B.V., 2019) Sankar, P.; Thomas, J.; Shashikala, H.D.; Philip, R.In this work, an Ag nanoparticle colloidal suspension flowing in the form of a thin jet (250 ?m) is irradiated by 150 femtosecond, 800 nm laser pulses to form a plasma which emits bremsstrahlung X-rays of up to 100 keV energy. The flowing jet ensures long-term durability of the plasma source during continuous laser irradiation. The laser pulse is p-polarized and the angle of incidence is normal to the jet surface, to optimize resonance absorption of laser radiation by the plasma electron density gradient. A 30-fold enhancement is observed in the X-ray yield in the nanoparticle suspension, compared to the precursor salt solution. This is because of the local field enhancement (LFE) associated with the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in Ag nanoparticles. Multiphoton ionization will be greatly enhanced in the presence of LFE, resulting in the generation of a relatively larger number of free electrons, which become “hot” electrons of high kinetic energy by resonance absorption. Bremsstrahlung in the X-ray regime occurs due to the deceleration of these hot electrons. Under identical excitation conditions the corresponding X-ray enhancement measured in Au nanoparticles is relatively lower at 18-fold. This decrease is due to the higher ionization potential of Au (9.22 eV) as compared to Ag (7.58 eV). On the other hand, absorption spectra and SEM images measured after continuous irradiation reveal that Au nanoparticles are more photostable compared to Ag nanoparticles. These studies show that Ag nanoparticles are better suited for X-ray generation compared to Au nanoparticles under the experimental conditions employed. Applications include dynamics studies, microscopy, and lithography. © 2019