Investigation on the TEA CO2 laser-induced optical breakdown in different gases and its effect on the pulses shape

In this paper, TEA CO2</sub> laser pulses focused by plasma shutters with 2.5, 5, and 10 cm focal lengths lenses were used to generate optical breakdown in various molecules having 1-5 atoms. Moreover, the dependence of the transmitted pulses temporal trace and the sparks geometry on the focusing power, as well as, the gas pressure, molecular weight, and ionization energy were investigated in detail. It has been observed that instead of the complete removal of the tail part in the transmitted pulse shapes, sometimes a fraction of them disappeares. For instance, the quenching time gap which is in the 0.05-2.6 µs range appeares in the transmitted pulse shapes for the 2.5 cm focal length. Such a quenching time at the lower scales, is also observed for He gas with the other focal lengths. The analyses of the generated plasma plume shapes and the focused laser beams paths reveales that this behavior is due to a quick dropping of the plasma density below the critical level before the pulse tail is completed.