Density and Velocity Measurements in Laser-Generated Plasmas by Rayleigh and Filtered Rayleigh Scattering Simultaneous Temperature

Simultaneous Rayleigh and filtered Rayleigh scattering observations are combined to characterize the shockwave formed by a 30mJ laser generated air plasma between 0.75 and 4 s after formation. A new variation on the Filtered Rayleigh Scattering technique is presented which allows tempera- ture, density and radial velocity to be measured simultaneously, assuming a cylindrically symmetric blast wave expansion. The resulting temperature, density and velocity dataset shows good agreement with a modified analyt- ical model of blast wave evolution. The energy deposited by the shockwave beyond 1.25mm radius is estimated from the data to be 81 mJ. This result is discussed in the context of net energy balance.

Simultaneous Temperature, Density and Velocity Measurements in Laser-Generated Plasmas by Rayleigh and Filtered Rayleigh Scattering Conference Paper