Browsing by Author "Kuhfeld, J."

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    Vibrational CARS measurements in a near-atmospheric pressure plasma jet in nitrogen: I. Measurement procedure and results
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2021) Kuhfeld, J.; Lepikhin, N.D.; Luggenhölscher, D.; Czarnetzki, U.
    The non-equilibrium ro-vibrational distribution functions of molecules in a plasma can heavily influence the discharge operation and the plasma-chemistry. A convenient method for measuring the distribution function is coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS). CARS spectra are measured in a ns-pulsed plasma between two parallel, 1 mm spaced molybdenum electrodes in nitrogen at 200 mbar with pulse durations of 200 ns/250 ns and a repetition rate of 1 kHz. The CARS spectra are analyzed by a fitting routine to extract information about the vibrational excitation of the nitrogen molecules in the plasma. It is found that during the discharge the vibrational distribution for v 7 can be described by a vibrational two-temperature distribution function. Additionally, the electric field is measured by the electric field induced second harmonic generation method during the discharge pulse. It is found to be constant in time after the initial ionization wave with values close to 81 Td for the investigated conditions. During the afterglow between two discharge pulses a more general fitting approach is used to obtain the population differences of two neighboring vibrational states. This allows to capture the more complex vibrational dynamics in that time period. The measurement results are discussed in more detail and compared to simple plasma models in a companion paper Kuhfeld et al (2021 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 54 305205).
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    Vibrational CARS measurements in a near-atmospheric pressure plasma jet in nitrogen: II. Analysis
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2021) Kuhfeld, J.; Luggenhölscher, D.; Czarnetzki, U.
    The understanding of the ro-vibrational dynamics in molecular (near)-atmospheric pressure plasmas is essential to investigate the influence of vibrational excited molecules on the discharge properties. In a companion paper Kuhfeld et al (2021 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 54 305204), results of ro-vibrational coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) measurements for a nanosecond pulsed plasma jet consisting of two conducting molybdenum electrodes with a gap of 1 mm in nitrogen at 200 mbar are presented. Here, those results are discussed and compared to theoretical predictions based on rate coefficients for the relevant processes found in the literature. It is found, that during the discharge the measured vibrational excitation agrees well with predictions obtained from the rates for resonant electron collisions calculated by Laporta et al (2014 Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 23 065002). The predictions are based on the electric field during the discharge, measured by electric field induced second harmonic generation Kuhfeld et al (2021 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 54 305204), Lepikhin et al (2020 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 54 055201) and the electron density, which is deduced from the field and mobility data calculated with Bolsig+ Hagelaar and Pitchford (2005 Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 14 722-33). In the afterglow a simple kinetic simulation for the vibrational subsystem of nitrogen is performed and it is found, that the populations of vibrational excited states develop according to vibrational-vibrational transfer on timescales of a few microseconds, while the development on timescales of some hundred microseconds is determined by the losses at the walls. No significant influence of electronically excited states on the populations of the vibrational states visible in the CARS measurements (v 7) was observed.