Measurements of Electron Temperature and Density of a Micro-Discharge Plasma Using Laser Thomson Scattering

Abstract

Laser Thomson scattering was successfully applied to measure electron temperature ( T e ) and electron density ( n e ) in a micro-discharge plasma. This is the first time that this method has been used to obtain otherwise inaccessible plasma information from the near vicinity (0.3 mm) of a material surface. The key of the success was the suppression of strong stray laser light by using a triple-grating spectrometer. Values of electron temperature and density were T e =(0.4–1.6) eV and n e =(6–10)×10 18 m -3 , depending on the time from the beginning of the pulsed discharge. The technique developed here is readily applicable to plasma display panel (PDP) discharges.