Measurements of Electron Temperature and Density of a Micro-Discharge Plasma Using Laser Thomson Scattering

Laser Thomson scattering was successfully applied to measure electron temperature (Te) and electron density (ne) in a micro-discharge plasma. This is the first time that this method has been used to obtain otherwise inaccessible plasma information from the near vicinity (0.3 mm) of a material surface. The key of the success was the suppression of strong stray laser light by using a triple-grating spectrometer. Values of electron temperature and density wereTe=(0.4–1.6) eV andne=(6–10)×1018m-3, depending on the time from the beginning of the pulsed discharge. The technique developed here is readily applicable to plasma display panel (PDP) discharges.