The line intensity ratio method provides a nonintrusive diagnostic for the measurement of electron temperature in microwave-generated plasmas. For optically thin plasmas of low density, a line intensity method using He I lines can often be used, and is based on the fact that the electron impact excitation rate coefficients for helium singlet and triplet states are insensitive to electron density but differ as a function of the electron temperature. Line intensity measurements are presented from microwave-generated helium plasmas. Both steady-state corona and collision-radiative theoretical models are used to evaluate the ground and excited state populations. The line ratio versus electron temperature obtained from both of these methods are compared with the results from measurements. However, it is not possible to diagnose the electron temperature from the line ratios alone due to the presence of significant opacity and nonnegligible 1s2s 3S metastable fraction in the plasma.

A neutral particle analyzer is used to measure the time-resolved energy spectrum of neutral hydrogen leaving a spheromak plasma. A gas cell filled with 10-50 mTorr of helium is used to strip electrons from incoming neutral hydrogen, lowering the minimum detectable energy well below that obtained with thin foils. Effective neutral particle temperature is calculated by fitting a Maxwellian energy distribution to the measured energy spectrum above and below approximately 300 eV. A computational model with approximated profiles of plasma density and neutral density is used with the measured neutral hydrogen flux to estimate the ion temperature. Measurement of the power flux due to neutral hydrogen emitted at the measurement location is extended to the whole plasma surface to estimate the total charge exchange power loss from the plasma. The initial results indicate that the charge exchange power loss represents only 2% of the total input gun power during the sustainment phase of the discharge.

With an arc-driven shock tube, laser induced fluorescence, and a multipoint density diagnostic technique, we study the turbulence behind an ionizing shock wave in the presence of a magnetic field. The magnetic field is directed either parallel to or antiparallel to the direction of the shock wave’s propagation, and is configured in such a way as to couple with turbulent velocity fluctuations in the plane perpendicular to the direction of flow. We find that the magnetic field can be used to reduce the turbulent energy in a plasma system. Further, when the evolution to turbulence is treated as a second-order phase transformation, the critical turbulent energy decreases with increasing magnetic field.

Plasmas created by a Nd:yttrium aluminum garnet laser show systematic changes in local electron temperature when bathed by a continuous wave laser of increasing irradiance. By monitoring the local electron density, the laser light absorption coefficient, and the signal to noise ratio in neutral emissions, we explain the changes in electron temperature and signal to noise to be a consequence of inverse bremsstrahlung in this new system of laser enhanced laser-induced plasmas.

When the krypton plasma in a DC glow discharge tube is exposed to an axial magnetic field, the turbulent energy and the characteristic dominant mode in the turbulent fluctuations are systematically and unexpectedly reduced with increasing magnetic field strength. When the index measuring the rate of transfer of energy through fluctuation scales is monitored, a lambda-like dependence on turbulent energy is routinely observed in all magnetic fields. From this, a critical turbulent energy is identified, which also decreases with increasing magnetic field strength.

A neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet laser of wavelength 0.532 µm with the maximum energy of 900 mJ creates plasmas at a focal point in air in the path of a 1 kW continuous wave fiber laser of wavelength 1.08 µm. We find that there is an unexpected influence on a standard set of turbulent parameters in these laser-induced plasmas. Specifically, the continuous wave laser increased the complexity in the turbulent fluctuations. The continuous wave laser reduces the characteristic fluctuation frequencies in the neutral lines. Furthermore, the continuous wave laser enhances turbulence energies in ions while it diminishes turbulence energies in neutrals.