Effect of atmospheric pressure pulsed discharge spatial inhomogeneity on Ar I and H I lines: Electron number density study

The spatial inhomogeneity of pulsed atmospheric pressure discharge in argon is investigated using the electron number density N_e diagnostics procedure applied to asymmetrically broadened Ar I lines. A dedicated fitting procedure is used for describing Ar I 703.0 nm line shape recorded from argon gas discharge and H I (at 486.13 and 656.28 nm) lines recorded from Ar-H₂ gas mixture discharge. The results revealed the change in N_e in both axial and radial directions. The additional Ar I lines at 614.5, 710.7, 731.2, and 731.6 nm, recorded from integral spatial radiation, are analysed as well to confirm the results from the plasma column region. The possibility of using AlO (B²∑⁺–X²∑⁺) and CN (B²∑⁺–X²∑⁺) molecular bands for gas temperature T_g measurements in this type of gas discharge source is demonstrated and T_g used as an input parameter for the N_e diagnostics procedure. For the proper identification of molecular band spectral lines, the Fortrat parabolas are constructed. The results obtained from Ar I 703.0 nm line indicate three different N_e values, with N_e1 ≈ 0.6 × 10¹⁶ cm⁻³, N_e2 ≈ 3.6 × 10¹⁶ cm⁻³, and N_e3 ≈ 19 × 10¹⁶ cm⁻³ measured from the plasma column. These N_e values increase in the cathode and anode region.