Cold Plasma Jet Coupled Nanosecond Laser Ablation Scheme For Plasmonic Nanostructured Surfaces

Abstract

This paper describes a study where an argon cold plasma jet, generated by a dielectric-barrier discharge (DBD), is combined with nanosecond laser ablation (248 nm, 25 ns, 10 Hz) to deposit silver particle aerosols onto the substrate at atmospheric pressure. The deposition of the particle is examined using various microscopy techniques and absorption spectroscopy for the plasma jet produced by operating DBD in the normal and reversed mode. Plasma facilitated the deposition process by delivering the particle to the substrate and significantly influenced its morphology depending on the jet interaction, length, and substrate position. In both cases, the particles are clustered; however, there is less deposit for the plasma ignited in the reverse mode. The theoretical analysis of the deposition process is performed using ANSYS software and evaluated in terms of plasma-induced flow velocity. This study infers that the hybrid plasma-laser deposition scheme considered is attractive for material processing and deposition, especially overextended substrate distances, and for altering the properties of the deposited particles for practical utilization in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, solar cells, and catalysis.