The propagation of the laser-induced plasma formed by KrF irradiation of Y1Ba2Cu3O7 has been characterized in background pressures of oxygen and argon typically used for thin film growth. The ion current transmitted through the background gases was recorded along the normal to the irradiated pellet as a function of distance in order to measure the decreasing velocity and magnitude of the expanding plasma current due to collisional slowing and attenuation of the laser plume. The integrated ion charge delivered to a substrate at low pressures can be described by elastic scattering giving a general integral cross sections of σc[O2] = 3.2 × 10−16 cm2 and σc[Ar] = 2.7 × 10−16 cm2. At higher pressures, inelastic-scattering leads to increased recombination and reactive conversion of ions indicated by increased fluorescence of all the species, which becomes dominated by fluorescence of YO and BaO. Spatially resolved fluorescence measurements indicate that the luminous boundary to the plasma follows a weak shock front which coincides with the ion flux propagation. The ion transmission is found to drop exponentially with distance and background pressure, in agreement with a simple scattering model which yields general scattering cross sections for ion-argon σi-Ar = 2.1 × 10−16 cm2 and ion-oxygen σi-O2 = 2.3 × 10−16 cm2 interactions in background pressures up to 300 mTorr. The general features of the plume deceleration are described in terms of a drag force model.