Time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy
has been successfully employed to investigate the evolution
of plasma produced by the interaction of IR- and
visible-pulsed laser beams with a titanium target in ambient
air at atmospheric pressure. The characterization of the
plasma-assisted pulsed laser ablation of the titanium target
is discussed in this study. The emission spectrum produced
by the titanium plasma in the wavelength range
200–1,000 nm has been carefully investigated for different
experimental conditions. Boltzmann plots have been used
in the calculation of the excitation temperature employing
Ti II spectral lines at 286.23, 321.71, 325.29, 348.36, and
351.08 nm; this set of lines was tested and proved to be
suitable for the measurement of the plasma temperature.
The obtained temperature is in good agreement with the
one obtained from Ti II spectral lines previously suggested
by Hermann et al. [J. Appl. Phys. 77, 2928–2936, 1995,
22]. Moreover, the Stark broadening method has been
employed for electron density measurements. In this study,
the Stark width of the Ti II spectral line at 350.49 nm was
used.