A multi-chord fiber-coupled interferometer is being used to make time-resolved density measurements of supersonic argon plasma jets on the Plasma Liner Experiment. The long coherence length of the laser (>10 m) allows signal and reference path lengths to be mismatched by many meters without signal degradation, making for a greatly simplified optical layout. Measured interferometry phase shifts are consistent with a partially ionized plasma in which both positive and negative phase shift values are observed depending on the ionization fraction. In this case, both free electrons and bound electrons in ions and neutral atoms contribute to the index of refraction. This paper illustrates how the interferometry data, aided by numerical modeling, are used to derive total jet density, jet propagation velocity (∼15–50 km/s), jet length (∼20–100 cm), and 3D expansion.
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October 2012
Research Article|
July 25 2012
Multi-chord fiber-coupled interferometry of supersonic plasma jets (invited)a)
Elizabeth C. Merritt;
Elizabeth C. Merritt
1Physics and Astronomy,
University of New Mexico
, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA
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Alan G. Lynn;
Alan G. Lynn
2Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of New Mexico
, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA
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Mark A. Gilmore;
1Physics and Astronomy,
University of New Mexico
, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA
2Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of New Mexico
, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA
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Carsten Thoma;
Carsten Thoma
3
Voss Scientific LLC
, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108, USA
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John Loverich;
John Loverich
4
Tech-X Corporation
, Boulder, Colorado 80303, USA
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Scott C. Hsu
Scott C. Hsu
5
Physics Division
, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
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b)
Electronic mail: gilmore@ece.unm.edu.
a)
Invited paper, published as part of the Proceedings of the 19th Topical Conference on High-Temperature Plasma Diagnostics, Monterey, California, May 2012.
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 10D523 (2012)
Article history
Received:
May 08 2012
Accepted:
June 25 2012
Citation
Elizabeth C. Merritt, Alan G. Lynn, Mark A. Gilmore, Carsten Thoma, John Loverich, Scott C. Hsu; Multi-chord fiber-coupled interferometry of supersonic plasma jets (invited). Rev. Sci. Instrum. 1 October 2012; 83 (10): 10D523. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4734496
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