Determination of the electron temperature of the tenuous pulsed argon ion laser plasma by means of the line intensity ratio technique

The validity of the diagnostic line-intensity ratio method for determination of the electron temperature was examined for a tenuous, NLTE pulsed argon ion laser plasma. Recently measured cross sections for simultaneous excitation and ionization of the upper levels of the argon ion laser were used and averaged over the velocity distribution, assumed Maxwellian. The electron temperature was determined by observing the sidelight intensity ratio of doublet 4765 Å and quartet 4806 Å transitions, and it was found to be 1.65 eV. This result is in agreement with electron temperature values obtained by the time resolved measurement and the double probe method, respectively. The theory of the positive column, where wall effects are not considered, gives somewhat larger values as an upper bound.