Population Density Measurements of the Excited States of an Optically Excited Argon Discharge Using Emission and Absorption Spectroscopy
Abstract
The populations of the excited argon (2s^2)(3p^5)(4s) (s5 only) and (3s^2)(3p^5)(4p) configurations in a 10 W radio frequency discharge has been studied using optical emission and diode laser absorption spectroscopy. by optically bleaching the s5-> p9 transition with a narrow band laser pump of about 10 W/cm^2 at 811nm, the p9 population was increased by about a factor of 2 at a pressure of 5 Torr. At higher pressure, collisional mixing to adjacent p-states limited the laser-increased p9 population to less than 10 percent. All other laser-induced p-state populations were minimally affected at low pressure and increased by about a factor of 4 at higher pressure. The low pressure absorption line shapes exhibited an inhomogeneous hole with band-integrated absorbance that scaled linearly with pump power. The s5 population was greater than 7*10^11 cm^-3 at a pressure of 5 Torr, and about 57 percent of this population was moved to the p9 state at 828 mW, or about 10 W/cm^2. Implications for development of a higher power optically pumped rare gas laser are discussed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 24, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1053914
Entities
People
- Steven A. Owens
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology