Measurement of equilibrium departure evolution in a high-current pulsed arc

This work reports information about the temporal evolution of the equilibrium departure in a high current pulsed arc. An argon plasma has been created in a linear lamp by discharging a capacitor bank on its electrodes. Very careful diagnostics techniques have allowed us to determine electron density Ne (2.0 - 9.5 X 1022 m-3) and ArII excitation temperature which has been assumed to be equal to kinetic electron temperature T (13000 - 26000 K). By making ArII/ArI intensities ratio at each instant of the plasma life, it is possible to obtain a parameter which gives an idea of the departure of ionization-recombination processes from local thermodynamic equilibrium conditions.© (1999) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.