Time-dependent spectroscopy of plasma plume under laser welding conditions

Momentary emission spectra of iron and argon lines were measured in a plasma plume induced during welding with a continuous wave CO2 laser. Time-dependent spectra were registered using a fast gate, lens coupled microchannel plate image intensifier placed between a spectrograph and a 1254 silicon intensified target detector connected to an optical multichannel analyser. The results, together with the analysis of the colour images from a fast camera, show that in the case when argon is the shielding gas, two plasmas exist: the argon plasma and the iron plasma. It has been found that during strong bursts the plasma plume over the keyhole consists mainly of metal vapour, not being diluted by the shielding gas. No apparent mixing of the metal vapour and the shielding gas has been observed. The space-averaged electron densities determined from the Stark broadening of the 7503.87, 7514.65 Angstrom Ar I lines amounts to (0.75-1.05) x 10(23) m(-3) depending on the distance from the surface. Assuming that argon is not mixed with the metal vapour and is in local thermodynamic equilibrium these electron densities correspond to the temperatures of 12-13 kK. At the peaks of strong vapour bursts the space-averaged electron densities determined from the Stark broadening of the 5383.37 Angstrom Fe I line are (0.6-1) x 10(23) m(-3). Numerical simulations showed that the maximum densities in the plasma centre are considerably higher and amount to similar to1.8 x 10(23) m(-3) and similar to2.45 x 10(23) m(-3) in the case of the argon and metal plasma, respectively. Consequently the absorption of the laser beam in the plasma plume amounts to similar to5% of the beam power in the case of argon and 10% in the case of metal plasma.