Generation of various carbon nanostructures in water using IR/UV laser ablation

A wide variety of carbon nanostructures were generated by a Q-switched Nd : YAG laser (1064 nm) while mostly nanodiamonds were created by an ArF excimer laser (193 nm) in deionized water. They were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was found that the IR laser affected the morphology and structure of the nanostructures due to the higher inverse bremsstrahlung absorption rate within the plasma plume with respect to the UV laser. Moreover, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy was carried out so that the plasma created by the IR laser was more energetic than that generated by the UV laser.