Effects of collision between two plumes on plume expansion dynamics during pulsed laser ablation in background gas

Si and Ge targets were simultaneously irradiated by individual two pulsed lasers, and two plumes from the targets were collided head-on with expectation to prepare hybrid nanoparticles. We investigate effects of He background gas pressure on plume collision dynamics. Three characteristic behaviors of plume expansion dynamics are observed at low, middle, and high background gas pressure regions. Interaction between the two atomic species during plume expansion was small and the effect of collision was hardly observed at a low background gas pressure, 130 Pa, while spatial evolution of the plume was suppressed at middle pressure, 270 Pa, due to collision of the two plumes. At high pressure, 2700 Pa, plume expansion is suppressed by background gas and the effect of a direct collision of two plumes was small. These results indicate that plume collision dynamics, which governs nanoparticle formation, and the mixture of Si and Ge species can be varied by background gas pressure. The deposit near the center of two targets was nanoparticles that were composed of Si and Ge.