Optical Emission Diagnostics of an U-Shaped Argon Stabilized d.c. Arc

The radial distribution of parameters has been measured by using the optical emission spectroscopy of an U-shaped argon stabilized low current arc at atmospheric pressure. All the measurements reported here were performed from a side-on observation direction by applying the Abel inversion routine. Radial distributions of apparent temperatures (T_exc., T_e, T_i, T_g) and of electron number density (n_e) for the plasma were measured, with and without presence of KCl (spectrochemical buffer). The measured data of n_e are compared to the theoretically calculated values of the equilibrium plasma composition. On the basis of the measured data, the validity of LTE concept is considered. It was found that deviation from LTE increases to the plasma periphery.