Mass and velocity distributions of laser ablated species ejected from a colossal magnetoresistant Pr0.67Sr0.33MnO3 target

Pulsed laser ablation of the colossal magnetoresistant (CMR) material, Pr0.67Sr0.33MnO3, has been investigated using a time-resolved quadrupole mass spectrometric method under both 355 nm and 532 nm laser irradiation. Mass and velocity distributions of the ionic and neutral ablated species are measured. The major ablated species include metal atoms and ions as well as binary metal oxides. The time-of-flight (TOF) spectra of ablated species are well fitted by a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution with a center-of-mass velocity. The kinetic energies of ablated metal ions are found to be up to 8 eV while those of neutral species are estimated to be less than 1.0 eV. The ablation yields of ablated species increase with increasing of laser fluence while the kinetic energies of ionic species are nearly independent of laser fluence. Possible mechanism of laser ablation of a Pr0.67Sr0.33MnO3 target is discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.