Numerical Modelling of Plasma Formation in Biological

Tissues by Short Laser Pulses in Nitrogen Medium

A Project Report

submitted by

SAYAN NASKAR
(Roll No. 15AE30015)

in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the award of the degree of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY (HONOURS)

AND
MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR

5th – June -2020

 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this report represents my ideas in my own words and where
others' ideas or words have been included, I have adequately cited and referenced
the original sources. I also declare that I have adhered to all principles of
academic honesty and integrity and have not misrepresented or fabricated or
falsified any idea/ data/ fact/ source in my submission. I understand that any
violation of the above will be cause for disciplinary action by the Institute and
can also evoke penal action from the sources which have thus not been properly
cited or from whom proper permission has not been taken when needed.

Sayan Naskar
Roll No. 15AE30015
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

Date: 6 June 2020

i
 CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL

This is to certify that the project report titled “Numerical modelling of plasma formation in

biological tissues by short laser pulses in Nitrogen medium” submitted by Sayan Naskar

to Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur for the award of the degree of Bachelor of

Technology (Honours) and Master of Technology is a bona fide record of research work

carried out by him under my supervision. The contents of this report, in full or in parts, have

not been submitted to any other Institute or University for the award of any degree or diploma.

Prof. RATAN JOARDER

Assistant Professor
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
West Bengal – 721302

Place: Kharagpur

Date: 6 June 2020

ii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to Prof. Ratan Joarder

who gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic,
which also helped me in doing a lot of Research and I came to know about so
many new things I am really thankful to them.
Secondly I would also like to thank friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this
project within the limited time frame.

Your Name
Date: 6 June 2020

iii
 ABSTRACT

This is a numerical model of plasma formation in nitrogen medium which based on the rate
equation for free electron density is proposed to investigate transient progression. The laser
focusing region is considered to be one-dimensional along the direction of the incident beam,
and is breake into numerous thin control volumes. The temporal evolution of the free electron
density is calculated sequentially for each control volume using a RK-4 method. The results
include temporal evolution and distribution of the free electron density along with plasma
length. It is shown that the threshold laser intensity for optical breakdown in Nitrogen and the
maximum length of the resulting plasma obtained from the present model are in good
agreement with existing experimental data.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1

Objectives .............................................................................................................................. 1
CHAPTER 2 THEORY ............................................................................................................. 2
Rate Equations ....................................................................................................................... 3
Notations and Values: ............................................................................................................ 4
CHAPTER 3 RESULTS and DISCUSSIONS ......................................................................... 5
Electron Density..................................................................................................................... 5
Plasma Length ........................................................................................................................ 6
CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION.................................................................................................... 8
Computational load / Error analysis ...................................................................................... 8
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................... 9

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 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
When a laser beam is focused to a point due to laser heating the free electron density in that
region increases that lead to an optical breakdown. When the free electron density reaches the
critical value the optical break down occurs and formation of plasma takes place also it leads
to a rapid heating of the focal volume, followed by an explosive expansion and emission of
shock waves. This newly formed plasma absorb the laser and start propagating towards the
laser source and no plasma induced after the focal spot. There is almost no plasma formation
behind the waist point and this phenomenon is known as Shielding Effect.

The newly formed plasma will absorb the laser light and act as an obstacle light transmission
due to the shielding effects. As a result, the light intensities in the formerly generated plasma
could be lower than that on the incident side.

Fig – 1 schematic of an elementary laser beam and plasma formation

Objectives
1) Evolution of free electron density for a very short laser impulse.
2) Study the plasma growth for a particular laser wavelength.
3) Differentiate to breakdown and non-breakdown region.

1
 CHAPTER 2
THEORY
The physical model of a Gaussian Laser beam where the laser is coming from the z axis is
focused on the origin i.e. “O”. In this model 𝑤2 ,𝑤3 , 𝑤4 , … … is the beam radius at the respective
point. Where 𝑤0 is the beam radius at the focal point that is ‘O’. The beam radius is varying
with the distance from the focal point,
1
𝑧2 2
𝑤(𝑧) = 𝑤0 ∗ (1 + 2 )
𝑧𝑟

Here ‘z’ is the distance from the focal point and ‘zr’ is the Rayleigh length.

Fig - 1 Physical model of plasma progression in Nitrogen

When the laser intensity at the focus point (z = 0) exceeds the breakdown threshold, the
dynamics of plasma formation is characterized by a rapid growth of the plasma from the
point O toward the incoming laser beam. The ‘breakdown front’ in Fig. 1 delineates the
boundary between the ‘no breakdown region’ and the ‘breakdown region’.

The laser intensity of the Gaussian beam is a function of time

𝑡 2
𝐼(𝑡) = 𝐼 ∗ exp (−4𝑙𝑛2 ( ) )
𝜏
In this model the whole region is brakes into the several control volumes by mesh
independence methods. It has been experimentally shown that the plasma length predicted by
the moving breakdown model agrees fairly well with the measured data for picosecond pulses.
The free electron density is a function of both time and length, here we are considering on a
single point only so the rate equation is being reduced to a function of time.

2
RATE EQUATION:

The rate equation for free electron density is given by.

𝜕𝜌(𝑧,𝑡 ) 𝜕𝜌(𝑧,𝑡 )
= ( ) + 𝜂𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝜌(𝑧, 𝑡) − g. 𝜌(𝑧, 𝑡) − 𝜂𝑟𝑒𝑐 𝜌2 (𝑧, 𝑡)
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡 𝑚𝑃

𝜕𝜌(𝑧,𝑡)
i) Multiphoton ionization ( )
𝜕𝑡 𝑚𝑃

ii) Cascade ionization 𝜂𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝜌(𝑧, 𝑡)

iii) Diffusion loss g. 𝜌(𝑧, 𝑡)
iv) Recombination loss 𝜂𝑟𝑒𝑐 𝜌2 (𝑧, 𝑡)
To solve this equation Runge-Kutta 4th order is used for our area of interest.

i) Multiphoton ionization: To ionize an atom or molecule having an ionization energy ΔE that

is larger than the photon energy, k photons are required, where k is the smallest integer greater
than ΔE/(hω).
3⁄2 𝑘
∂𝜌(𝑧,𝑡) 2𝜔 𝑚′ 𝜔 ⅇ2 2𝛥𝐸
( ) = ( ) [ 𝐼(𝑧, 𝑡)] ⅇ𝑥𝑝(2𝑘)𝜙 (√2𝑘 − )
∂𝑡 𝑚𝑃 9𝜋 ℏ 16 𝑚′ 𝑐 𝑛 𝜀0 Δ𝐸 ℏ𝜔

𝒙
𝝓(𝒙) = exp(−𝒙𝟐 ) ∫𝟎 exp (𝒚𝟐 ) ⅆ𝒚

ii) Cascade ionization: Once free electrons are generated by multiphoton ionization; they will
gain energy from the electric field through inverse bremsstrahlung absorption (IBA). The
energized electron impacts and ionizes another molecule, creating a new low-energy free
electron. After the impact ionization, the couple of free electrons, including that losing most of
its kinetic energy from the impact and the one newly generated, undergo another round of IBA
followed by impact ionization. The above two-step process repeats until the laser pulse is off.
The cascade ionization constant ηcasc
1 ⅇ2 𝜏 𝑚𝜔 2 𝜏
𝜂𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑒 = [ 𝐼(z, t) − ]
𝜔 2 𝜏2 +1 𝑐 𝑛 𝑚 𝜀0 Δ𝐸 𝑀

iii) Diffusion loss: The decrease of the electron density in a control volume resulting from
electron diffusion. The following expression for the diffusion constant g,

𝜏𝛥𝐸 2.4 2 1 2
𝑔= [( ) + ( ) ]
3𝑚 𝜔0 𝑧𝑅

iv) Recombination loss: The constant in the recombination rate, ηrec, is taken to be 2×10−9
cm3/s, an empirical value obtained by Docchio through measurements of the decay of plasma
luminescence.

3
 The free electron density is solved for a particular point via this rate equation with the help of
computer code. The breakdown and no breakdown region is identified also corresponding
plasma length also determined.

Notations and Values: -

Wave length (λ) = 583 nm,
Plasma absorption coefficient (α) = 60 cm−1
Pulse Duration = 6 ns, 30 ps, 120 fs.
FWHM (τp) = 6 ns
Power ratio (β) = 2-25
Focusing angle (θ) = 22
Focal spot size (𝑤0 ) = 7.66 μm
Speed of light ( c) = 3 x 108 m/s.
Refractive index (n) = 1.0003 ( N2)
Mass of molecule (M) = 4.65 × 10−26 kg
Electron charge (e) =1.6021 x 10−21 q
Planck constant (h) = 6.626 x 10−34 m2 kg/s.
Permittivity of free space ( εo ) = 8.854 x 10−12 (si unit)
Time b/w electron and heavy particle collision (ζ ) = 10−15 sec.
Ionization energy (ΔE) = 14.53 eV
Laser intensity (I) = 7.7 x 10−4 Wcm−2
Location of interest (z) = 4x10−6 m

Plasma Length: -
For a moving breakdown model the plasma length is a function of distance, and it is given by
0 for t ≤ t 0
2 −1
z(t) = 𝑧𝑅 √𝛽ⅇ −2(𝑡∕2𝐴) for t 0 ≤ t ≤ 0

𝑧𝑅 √𝛽 − 1 for t > 0

Where t 0 = −𝐴 √2 ln 𝛽 and A= 𝜏𝑝 √ln 2

4
 CHAPTER 3
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:
Electron Density: -

Fig -3 Temporal evolution of electron density: λ = 580nm, τ = 6ns

Fig -4 Temporal evolution of electron density: λ = 580nm, τ = 30ps

5
 Fig -4 Temporal evolution of electron density: λ = 580nm, τ = 120fs

Plasma Length: -

Fig -5 Temporal evolution of plasma length: λ = 580nm, τ = 30ps

6
 Fig -6 Temporal evolution of plasma length: λ = 580nm, τ = 6ns

Fig -7 Temporal evolution of plasma length: λ = 580nm, τ = 120fs

.

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 CHAPTER 4
CONCLUTIONS
Computational load / Error analysis
The maximum plasma lengths are independent of pulse duration (τ). They are dependent of
the values of wo and β.the laser breakdown model is very accurate for facto-sec pulse but not
very effective for nano or Pico sec pulse because it does not take into account the electron
diffusion and recombination losses.

When the electron density in the breakdown region decreases to below the critical value, that
region returns to the normal (non-breakdown) state. The free electron density and the plasma
length is obtained for any time by the length of the zone.

In between the breakdown and non-breakdown region there is a very sharp front exist for
nano-sec pulses. But for the plasma-front sharpness decreases with decreases is pulse
duration.

At the threshold irradiance sharp increase of the free electron density occurs. For the pulses
whose irradiance is below the threshold value, they cannot provide sufficient seed electrons
for the cascade impact. Therefore, the maximum densities of free electrons simulated are
much smaller than the critical value.

The plasma length increases with increasing pulse energy. The strong dependence of plasma
length on the focusing angle θ is seen The moving breakdown model predicts the plasma
starting time and growth based only on the distribution of the focused laser intensity.

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 REFERENCES

[1] Numerical modeling of transient progression of plasma formation in biological tissues

induced by short laser pulses Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering,
University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211, USA

[2] Laser-Induced Plasma Formation in Water at Nanosecond to Femtosecond Time Scales:

Calculation of Thresholds, Absorption Coefficients, and Energy Density by Joachim
Noack and Alfred Vogel

[3] https://www.intechopen.com/books/plasma-science-and-technology-progress-in-
physical-states-and-chemical-reactions/laser-induced-plasma-and-its-applications

[4] R.F. Steinert, C.A. Puliafito, The Nd:YAG Laser in Ophthalmology(Saunders,

Philadelphia, PA, 1985)
[5] W.H. Press, S.A. Teukolsky, W.T. Vetterling, B.P. Fannery, Numerical Recipes in C,
2nd edn. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK,(1992)

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 APPENDICES

Wave length = (λ)

Plasma absorption coefficient = (α)
FWHM = (𝜏p)
Power ratio = (β)
Focusing angle = (θ)
Focal spot size = (ω)
Speed of light = (c)
Refractive index = (n)
Mass of molecule = (M)
Electron charge = (e)
Planck constant = (h)
Permittivity of free space = (εo)
Time b/w electron and heavy particle collision = (𝜏) .
Ionization energy = (ΔE)

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