Crosstalk-Free Excitation Scheme for Quantitative OH Laser-Induced Fluorescence in Environments Containing Excited CO

Spectral overlap in the single-photon laser-induced fluorescence between the 3064 Å system of OH and the third positive system of CO is detected in a highly-excited environment, namely, a CO₂-H₂O plasma. The overlap is distorting excitation and fluorescence spectra as well as fluorescence time decays of commonly used excitation transitions of OH. As a consequence, systematic errors are introduced into the determination of temperatures, gas compositions, and absolute number densities. The P₁(2) transition is proposed to circumvent the distortion while still allowing for quantitative measurements due to the availability of non-radiative rate coefficients.