Piezospectral method of measuring pressure pulses

The use of the transducers with electric outlet for measuring pressure in a pulse electric discharge is hampered by electric noise. Therefore, measuring systems with optical outlet are of particular interest. The piezospectral method using a ruby crystal can be regarded as the most efficient for this purpose. A shift of the contour of the luminescence line of ruby R1 under the impact of compression is applied to advantage for measuring static pressure in the studies of crystal properties in crystal chemistry and physics. A ruby scale of static pressures is characterized by a shift of R1 line center which is directly proportional to applied pressure. The authors have studied the possibility of extending this method to the dynamic problems on the example of measuring pressure pulses in a plasma piston of rail gun. A method of determination of the line contour shift has been investigated using continuous registration of radiation at several fixed frequencies. The method is based on model ideas about the shape of the luminescence line. R1R2-dublet is presented as a sum of two simple (Lourenz) three-parametric contours and background illumination