Software for automatization of IEA-analysis of plasma-laser spectra

A software has been developed in order to automatize the ion energy analyzer (IEA) spectra analysis of laser-generated plasmas.A Nd:Yag laser operating at an intensity of the order of 10¹⁰ W/cm², 9 ns pulse width and energy of the order of 600 mJ, has been employed to irradiate different metallic targets (Al, Ti, W) and to produce plasma pulses. The ion emission from the plasma is monitored through an IEA instrument permitting time-of-flight (TOF) measurements to determine the ion energy distributions as a function of the charge state.The software program consists in two sections. The first one permits to identify the IEA ion peaks corresponding to different charge states as a function of the theoretical TOF values. The second section permits to plot the ion velocity and energy distributions as a function of the charge state. The obtained distributions are fitted using the “Coulomb-Boltzamnn shifted” function approach through the “Peakfit” code. The fit of the experimental data permits to estimate the equivalent plasma temperature and the average energy shift of the distributions as a function of the ion charge state.