This work has the purpose to characterize the plasma produced by solid target ablation. The experiment was performed by using a KrF laser with an irradiance of 108 W/cm2 and different solid targets, i.e., Si, Ge, Pd, and Pb. A very suitable Faraday cup has been utilized to study the angular distribution of the plasma plume as well as to perform measurements of the ion charge carried by the plasma during its free expansion into the vacuum. Particular attention was done to estimate the charge losses ascribed to the recombination processes during the plasma expansion. Different charge angular distributions have been found for the four laser-induced plasmas which suggest the dependence of the plasma characteristics with the different physics processes involved during the laser-target and laser–plasma interaction. These processes are responsible also of the duration of the recombination processes which results …