A passive measurement of dissociated atom densities in atmospheric pressure air discharge plasmas using vacuum ultraviolet self-absorption spectroscopy

Journal Article · Fri Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4869895· OSTI ID:22271131

Laity, George ^[1]; Fierro, Andrew; Dickens, James; Neuber, Andreas ^[1]; Frank, Klaus ^[2]

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1. Center for Pulsed Power and Power Electronics, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Department of Physics, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409 (United States)
2. Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Department of Physics, Friedrich–Alexander University at Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen (Germany)

We demonstrate a method for determining the dissociation degree of atmospheric pressure air discharges by measuring the self-absorption characteristics of vacuum ultraviolet radiation from O and N atoms in the plasma. The atom densities are determined by modeling the amount of radiation trapping present in the discharge, without the use of typical optical absorption diagnostic techniques which require external sources of probing radiation into the experiment. For an 8.0 mm spark discharge between needle electrodes at atmospheric pressure, typical peak O atom densities of 8.5 × 10{sup 17} cm{sup −3} and peak N atom densities of 9.9 × 10{sup 17} cm{sup −3} are observed within the first ∼1.0 mm of plasma near the anode tip by analyzing the OI and NI transitions in the 130.0–132.0 nm band of the vacuum ultraviolet spectrum.

• OSTI ID: 22271131
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, Issue 12; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ABSORPTION SPECTROSCOPY
ANODES
ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE
ATOMS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DISSOCIATION
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
FAR ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
PLASMA
PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS
PLASMA SIMULATION
SELF-ABSORPTION
TRAPPING
ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRA