Stark broadening for diagnostics of the electron density in non-equilibrium plasma utilizing isotope hydrogen alpha lines

Abstract

Two Stark broadening parameters including FWHM (full width at half maximum) and FWHA (full width at half area) of isotope hydrogen alpha lines are simultaneously introduced to determine the electron density of a pulsed vacuum arc jet. To estimate the gas temperature, the rotational temperature of the C2 Swan system is fit to 2500 ± 100 K. A modified Boltzmann-plot method with bi-factor is introduced to determine the modified electron temperature. The comparison between results of atomic and ionic lines indicates the jet is in partial local thermodynamic equilibrium and the electron temperature is close to 13 000 ± 400 K. Based on the computational results of Gig-Card calculation, a simple and precise interpolation algorithm for the discrete-points tables can be constructed to obtain the traditional ne-Te diagnostic maps of two Stark broadening parameters. The results from FWHA formula by the direct use of FWHM = FWHA and these from the diagnostic map are different. It can be attributed to the imprecise FWHA formula form and the deviation between FWHM and FWHA. The variation of the reduced mass pair due to the non-equilibrium effect contributes to the difference of the results derived from two hydrogen isotope alpha lines. Based on the Stark broadening analysis in this work, a corrected method is set up to determine ne of (1.10 ± 0.08) × 1021 m−3, the reference reduced mass μ0 pair of (3.30 ± 0.82 and 1.65 ± 0.41), and the ion kinetic temperature of 7900 ± 1800 K.