Sweep Langmuir Probe and Triple Probe Diagnostics for Transient Plasma Produced by Hypervelocity Impact

Abstract

Two techniques are applied to diagnose characteristic parameters of plasma created by hypervelocity impact, such as electron temperature and electron density. The first technique is a sweep Langmuir probe (SLP), which is a new apparatus based on a dual channel circuit that can compensate for stray capacitance and obtain a good synchronicity, so that electrostatic turbulence with a good temporal resolution can be acquired. The second technique is a triple Langmuir probe (TLP), which is an electrostatic triple Langmuir probe diagnostic system, in which no voltage and frequency sweep is required. This technique allows to measure electron temperature, electron density as a function of time. Moreover, the triple Langmuir probe diagnostic system allows the direct display of electron temperature and semidirect display of electron density by an appropriate display system, the system permits us to eliminate almost all data processing procedures. SLP and TLP were applied to obtain fluctuations of the characteristic parameters of plasma generated by hypervelocity impact. As an example of their application to time-dependent plasma measurement, the electron temperature and electron density of plasmas were acquired in hypervelocity impact experiments. Characteristic parameters of plasma generated by hypervelocity impact were compared by the two kinds of diagnostic techniques mentioned above.