Laser-ionization mass-spectrometric studies on laser ablation of a nitrogen-rich polymer at 532 nm and 1064 nm

Laser-ionization Time-Of-Flight (TOF) mass-spectrometric studies have been carried out on the 532 nm and 1064 nm laser ablation products from a nitrogen-rich polymer. The polymer used had an elemental composition of C6.0N8.9H3.4 and consisted of C=N, C-N, and N-H chemical bonds. The TOF mass spectra observed were composed of various peaks (≤150 amu) depending on the ablation laser wavelength. The primary peaks were assigned to C+, CN+, CHnN+ 2 (n=1−3) and C2H2N+ 3 for 532 nm ablation, and C+, C+ 3, HCN+, HCCN+, CH2NH+, HNCN+, H3NCN+, and C4H4N+ 7 for 1064 nm ablation. The flight velocity distributions with peak velocities ranging from ≈8.6×103 cm/s to ≈3.8×104 cm/s were measured for these products. The distinct velocity distributions observed between small and large products indicate the presence of two origins in the fragment ejection process from the polymer for both 532 nm and 1064 nm ablation. Furthermore, we suggest an importance of the translational energy of the fragments for the product generation in the laser plume.