Light-curing polymers for laser plasma generation

Solid rather than liquid media are used in pulsed laser plasma generators despite sophisticated transportation and dosing system need for a long-term operation. Liquid media could be more preferable due to transfer and dosing (down to 10-14 L) being well developed, but plasma generation of those results in intense droplet formation and kinetic energy losses. Combination of liquids transportation advantages and solids plasma generation efficiency might resolve this trade-off. Liquid-to-solid transition can be induced by cooling down to sublimation temperature, thermo-, photo- or electron induced polymerization (curing). Light cured polymers seem to be very useful as active media for plasma generators, since they can be solidified very fast (ca. 30 ms) just before impact. We considered experimentally several UV- curing polymer and mixtures ablation regimes and supply schemes for laser plasma generation. The best results were obtained for liquid polymer at high-power pulsed irradiation matching curing optimum wavelength.