CONCENTRATION PROFILING IN A NEON OPTOGALVANIC LAMP USING CONCENTRATION-MODULATED ABSORPTION-SPECTROSCOPY

The quantitative pump-probe spectroscopic technique Concentration-Modulated Absorption Spectroscopy, in which a modulated pump laser perturbs the population difference between two electronic states interrogated by a probe laser of the same wavelength, is employed to determine absolute species concentrations and state lifetimes for the four lowest excited states of neon in a hollow-cathode discharge lamp. The variations of the species concentrations in localized regions of space are determined and information is derived on the kinetic excitation and de-excitation rate processes that determine the species concentrations in the various levels.