Comparison of TALIF and catalytic probes for the determination of nitrogen atom density in a nitrogen plasma afterglow

Abstract

The density of neutral nitrogen atoms in a glass reactor was measured by two absolute methods: two-photon absorption laser induced fluorescence (TALIF) and catalytic probes. The source of N atoms was nitrogen plasma created in a quartz tube by surfatron microwave generator operating at 2.45 GHz and adjustable output power up to 300 W. The TALIF measurements were performed using a dye laser which was pumped by a YAG laser. At the exit of the dye laser, the beam frequency was doubled through a KDP crystal and then mixed in a BBO crystal. The wavelength of the output laser beam was chosen at 206.65 nm so two-photon absorption was suitable to excite nitrogen atoms from the ground state to the 5d 2D state. Absolute N density was determined by using calibration with krypton. Simultaneously, the N atom density was measured with a fiber optics catalytic probe (FOCP) with a well-activated iron catalytic tip. Measurements were performed by both methods at nitrogen flows between 0.2 and 2 l min−1, and discharge powers between 60 and 300 W. At rather high nitrogen flows, the N atom density increased monotonically with increasing discharge power, while at lower flow saturation was observed. TALIF showed somewhat higher values than FOCP which was attributed to the accuracy of both methods. The main advantage of TALIF is a broader detection range, while FOCP is an extremely simple and inexpensive technique.