Studies of glow discharge plasmas using laser Thomson scattering

Laser Thomson scattering has been successfully applied to glow discharge plasmas for understanding plasma behavior. One application is to low pressure glow discharges where electron densities are as low as 1016 m-3. Anisotropy in electron temperature parallel and perpendicular to magnetic fields in an electron cyclotron resonance plasma, and a departure from Maxwellian energy distribution functions in an inductively coupled plasma were amongst the most salient features of the results. Another application is to high pressure glow discharges used for excimer laser pumping. The results from both low and high pressure glow discharges were used to interpret various phenomena occurring in these discharges. These applications are described and future directions of the studies are discussed. (author)