Laser diagnostics in plasma research

The paper surveys some recent advances in plasma diagnostics by laser light scattering and is broadly divided according to whether the scattered radiation reflects uncorrelated electron motion or the motion of electrons and ions moving collectively. The first section deals with some attempts to solve technical problems such as stray light suppression and how to perform a continuous measurement of electron temperature Tsub(e). It also examines the interpretation of scattered light frequency distributions measured in hot plasmas. The second section is concerned with heterodyne detection and the development and application of long wavelength lasers to collective domain scattering in plasmas having very large Debye lengths, such as those found in thermonuclear fusion experiments. (Auth.)