The Effect of Temperature on the Spectral Emission of Plasma Induced in Water

Abstract

A numerical modeling investigation of the spectral emission of laser-induced plasma in MgCl2-NaCl aqueous solution has been presented. A model based on equilibrium equations has been developed for the computation of the plasma composition and excited levels population. Physical interpretation is presented to comment on firstly the evolution of atomic species number densities, and secondly on the population of the excited species emitting MgII and NaI resonant lines for temperatures ranging from 3000 K to 20 000 K. It is shown that MgII line reach a maximum of population on the issuing level, at norm temperature of 13800 K. Whereas, NaI line presents two norm temperatures, evaluated at 3300 K and 11700 K. This splitting of the NaI norm temperature is explained by the low-ionization potential and weak concentration of the sodium atom in this aqueous solution. Thus, the proposed model can be useful to predict the optimal plasma temperature for the detection of given chemical element, which is not easy to reveal experimentally.