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Investigation of the threshold intensity versus gas pressure in the breakdown of helium by 248 nm laser radiation

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Abstract

An investigation of the unexpectedly strong dependence of the threshold intensity on the gas pressure in the experimental study on the breakdown of He by short laser wavelength (Turcu et al., in Opt Commun, 134:66–68, 1997) is presented. A modified electron cascade model is applied (Evans and Gamal, in J Phys D Appl Phys, 13:1447–1458, 1980). Computations revealed reasonable agreement between the calculated thresholds and the measured ones. Moreover, the calculated electron energy distribution function and its parameters proved that multiphoton ionization of ground and excited atoms is the main source for the seed electrons, which contributes to the breakdown of helium. The effect of diffusion losses over pressures <1,000 Torr elucidated the origin of the strong dependence of the threshold intensity on the gas pressure. Collisional ionization dominates only at high pressures. No evidence for recombination losses is observed for pressures up to 3,000 Torr.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Laser Enhanced Sciences, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

    Yosr E. E.-D. Gamal

  2. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

    Galila Abdellatif

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  1. Yosr E. E.-D. Gamal
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  2. Galila Abdellatif
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Correspondence to Galila Abdellatif.

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Gamal, Y.E.ED., Abdellatif, G. Investigation of the threshold intensity versus gas pressure in the breakdown of helium by 248 nm laser radiation. Appl. Phys. B 117, 103–111 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-014-5807-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-014-5807-0

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