An investigation of local thermodynamic equilibrium in an argon plasma jet at atmospheric pressure

This paper deals with an experimental investigation of the conditions for local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) to exist in an atmospheric argon plasma jet. We have measured the emission coefficient of seven Ar I transition and the line shape of the hydrogen H β transition. After transforming the si...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of quantitative spectroscopy & radiative transfer 1989-05, Vol.41 (5), p.369-376
Main Authors: Bakshi, Vivek, Kearney, Robert J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Exact sciences and technology
Physics
Physics of gases, plasmas and electric discharges
Physics of plasmas and electric discharges
Plasma properties
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Summary:This paper deals with an experimental investigation of the conditions for local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) to exist in an atmospheric argon plasma jet. We have measured the emission coefficient of seven Ar I transition and the line shape of the hydrogen H β transition. After transforming the side-on data into radial space, the population densities of the excited neutral argon atoms and the electron density are determined as functions of the radius of the plasma jet. It is found that LTE does not exist below an electron density of 6 x 10 22 m -3. The two-temperature Saha equation is shown to give non-physical results for gas temperatures in our electron-density range of 2–6 x 10 22m -3. We have also shown that diffusion effects are important under our experimental conditions.
ISSN:0022-4073
1879-1352
DOI:10.1016/0022-4073(89)90067-8