Laser ablation of Al2O3–TiC: a spectroscopic investigation

The aim of this paper is to study the plasma plume created during KrF laser ablation of Al2O3–TiC targets in order to gain a better insight on the ablation process of this ceramic composite. Time resolved optical emission spectroscopy was carried out in the 300–800 nm range, with a high-resolution spectrometer coupled to an ICCD camera. The spatially and temporally resolved distributions of the light emitted by different species in the plasma, such as Al I at 396.15 nm, Al II at 358.65 nm, Al III at 360.15 nm, Ti I at 498.17 nm, Ti II at 390.06 nm and O I at 777.19 nm, were investigated. The spectroscopic data is correlated with the change of the surface morphology and composition previously observed in the UV pulsed laser micromachining of this material.