Intensity coded false color images of expanding laser generated plume from a barium titanate target in the Ceramic Division's Pulsed Laser Deposition Facility. The field of view, looking at the target surface, is about 1 cm by 1 cm and the total sequence time is 150 ns (1.5 x 10-7 s).

The images were obtained with an intensified CCD camera equipped with a 200 mm lens, 2x coupler at F/16. 30 frames averaging 8 laser shots were obtained with a 10 ns exposure and incremental delay of 20 ns resulting in a 600 ns sequence. Each frame was self normalized and converted to intensity coded false color. The barium titanate target was in a vacuum chamber mainted at a pressure of 39 Pa of oxygen gas. An excimer laser operating at 248 nm (UV) with an energy of 150 mJ was focused on the barium titanate target to a a spot about 0.25 x 1.0 mm. The laser was on for about 30 ns and hit the target from the right. The laser interacted with the plume resulting in a more energetic plume, i.e. more emission, on the upper part of the plume. The expanding plume appears to consist of several parts because the expansion of the ions in the plume is faster than the neutral species in the plume.

Detailed analysis of image sequences, such as this one, are compared with hydrodynamic models of the the plume's expansion to better understand the Pulsed Laser Deposition process.