Recombination processes during the laser-plasma expansion

This work is devoted to characterizing the ion current changes resulting in a laser-plasma in free expansion near the irradiated target. In this zone, in fact, the plasma density is very high and the plasma charged particles are subjected to recombination processes which induce changes in the chargestate abundances. The recombination end occurs after the dilution of plasma density and the laser-plasma keeps on expanding in vacuum characterized by steady charge and energy distribution of the ions. The knowledge of distance, where the charge states of ions are not affected of changes any more, is essential to develop a laser ion source where the extraction of ions from the laser-produced plasma is required