Studies on the ns-IR-Laser-Induced Plasma Parameters in the Vanadium Oxide

We report spectroscopic studies of laser-induced plasma (LIP) produced by ns-IR-Nd:YAG laser light pulses of different energies onto four different oxides of vanadium (VO, V 2 O 3 , VO 2 , and V 2 O 5 ) in air under atmospheric pressure. For each oxide with a different oxidation state of vanadium, both electron density and plasma temperature were calculated for different time delays and laser pulse energies. The plasma temperature was determined from Boltzmann plot method, whereas the electron number density was estimated from the Saha equation. The decay rates for plasma temperature as well as electron density were observed to follow power law and were independent of the nature of vanadium oxide. These investigations provide an insight to optimize various parameters during LIBS analysis of vanadium-based matrices.