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Updated: Mar 11, 2026

Non-equilibrium Microwave Plasma for Efficient High Temperature Chemistry
Published on: August 1, 2017
Plasma characterization using ultraviolet Thomson scattering from ion-acoustic and electron plasma waves (invited)
R K Follett1, J A Delettrez1, D H Edgell1
1Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, 250 East River Road, Rochester, New York 14623, USA.
Abstract:
Collective Thomson scattering is a technique for measuring the plasma conditions in laser-plasma experiments. Simultaneous measurements of ion-acoustic and electron plasma-wave spectra were obtained using a 263.25-nm Thomson-scattering probe beam. A fully reflective collection system was used to record light scattered from electron plasma waves at electron densities greater than 1021 cm-3, which produced scattering peaks near 200 nm. An accurate analysis of the experimental Thomson-scattering spectra required accounting for plasma gradients, instrument sensitivity, optical effects, and background radiation. Practical techniques for including these effects when fitting Thomson-scattering spectra are presented and applied to the measured spectra to show the improvements in plasma characterization.
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