Pulsed resonance saturation spectroscopy for plasma diagnostic

Possibilities are discussed for using pulsed resonance saturation spectroscopy to measure the density of hydrogen and other impurities for pulsed plasma devices. It is shown that species under consideration can be excited to some higher energy level to saturation with a pulsed high-power laser in a time short compared to the lifetime of that particular excited state. Computational results are presented for a general three level system, hydrogen and iron. Comparison of the results with and without collision processes shows that plasma parameters are not required for estimation of impurity density offering a major advantage over conventional plasma diagnostics. copyright 1996 American Institute of Physics