Narrow-band BoxCARS applied to CO2 laser discharges

Summary CARS (Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering) has developed into a powerful tool for studying molecular systems. One of its possibilities is to derive vibrational and rotational temperatures as well as concentrations of molecules from measurements of the energy level population differences. A very good spatial resolution of CARS technique is one of its important advantages. This feature has been utilized for making spatially resolved measurements of the vibrational and rotational temperatures of N₂ in a d.c.-excited transverse-flow CO₂ laser discharge. Apart from that also spectra of CO₂, CO and O₂ in the discharge have been taken, which allowed us to evaluate the spatial distributions of those components in the discharge. Additionally first investigations of a microwave-excited CO₂ laser module have been performed for comparison. Paper presented at the ?XI European CARS Workshop?, Florence, Italy, 23–25 March, 1992.