Using triple Langmuir probe method for study high-speed plasma flow created by a pulsed capillary discharge

Abstract

The results of triple Langmuir probe method diagnostics of plasma created by a pulsed discharge in a capillary with an ablating wall and injected into a rarefied atmosphere (p < 1 Torr) are presented. The possibility of obtaining high-speed plasma flows in the wide range of electron density n e = 10 11 - 10 15 cm -3 and the temperature T e = 1 - 5 eV by varying the discharge power input in the range of N = 15 - 500 kW is shown. The effects indicating the violation of approximation of the infinitely thin probe layer while reducing the electron density below n e < 10 13 cm -3 and requiring account in the theoretical model of a triple probe are found. The results of measurements are in good quantitative agreement with the results of diagnostics of plasma flows similar in parameters.