Recent work from this research group has investigated and characterized a plasma formed by an ArF excimer laser at a metal surface. The ArF excimer laser plasma has the potential to replace conventional plasma (e.g., inductively coupled plasma, direct current plasma, etc.) for spectrochemical analysis. This paper describes the formation and instrumentation used to characterize and evaluate the plasma. Space and time resolved studies using emission measurements were obtained for copper and lead targets. Results are presented which show that the two metals gave quite different sizes of plasma. The plasma formed with copper extending 2 mm, and that with lead extending 5 mm above the metal surface. Excitation temperature of the plasma was calculated using the Boltzmann method and found to be in the range 11,200 to 17,200 degree(s)K for copper and 11,700 to 15,300 degree(s)K for lead. The effect of pressure over the range 10 - 760 torr and atmosphere (air, argon, and helium) on the shape and line-to background ratio and temperature of the plasma created above the surface of a copper target also is discussed.
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