High resolution emission and absorption spectroscopy for erosion product analysis in boundary plasmas

Abstract

The highly resolved spectra of the silicon multiplet around 251 nm are studied for plasmas in front of a C/C-SiC target interacting with a nearly cylindrically symmetric low temperature plasma jet. The erosion rates from this target are deduced from the silicon density distribution, which is determined from the line intensity ratios and details of the line profiles. Under the conditions of the plasma parameters in this plasma-target interaction experiment these spectral line parameters depend on the optical depths of the emitting and absorbing silicon atoms along the line of sight. The spectral line central branching ratios of lines with quite different products of absorption oscillator strength and statistical weight are most sensitive to the optical depth. In the case of high plasma jet currents the density of the eroded silicon is found to reach values of up to 5×1018 m−3 in agreement with gravimetric measurements.