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Ultraviolet Rayleigh Scatter Imaging For Spatial Temperature Profiles In Atmospheric Microdischarges, James E. Caplinger

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Spatially resolved temperature measurements within a microdischarge in atmospheric pressure air have been conducted using Rayleigh scattering of a pulsed ultraviolet laser. Scattering intensity images were used to generate a radial profile of translational temperature, with the analysis based on the ideal gas inverse relationship of temperature and gas density. Rayleigh scattering results were compared to standard optical emission spectral analyses of N2(C3Πu - B3Πg) bands, where the calculated rotational temperatures from emission were in reasonable agreement with the Rayleigh translational temperature profiles.