Laser induced fluorescence in a pulsed argon plasma

Abstract

A time-resolved laser induced fluorescence (LIF) technique for pulsed argon plasmas is described. A low power, tunable diode laser pumps a three level Ar II transition sequence at a wavelength of 668.6138 nm. With a standard LIF system designed for steady-state plasmas (e.g., 4 kHz optical chopper, 20 kHz band-width detector, and a lock-in amplifier), we demonstrate that the evolution of the ion velocity distribution can be resolved with a time resolution of 1 ms through a combination of time-series averaging and post-acquisition digital signal processing.