Investigation of soot by two-colour four-wave mixing

A novel technique has been used fur the temporally resolved investigation of the interaction of laser radiation and soot in a flame. Based on established soot vaporisation models we developed a framework to calculate the two-colour four-wave mixing signal obtained in an acetylene/air diffusion flame at atmospheric pressure. The signal comprises a contribution due to soot and, depending on the wavelength of the probe laser, a contribution because of C-2, which is generated by vaporising soot. For both parts of the signal we found a good agreement between measured and calculated power dependency. Furthermore, we measured spatial profiles of the signal in a Wolfhard-Parker slot burner. By analysing the different signal contributions we found that depending on the location within the flame there are particles with different C-2 yield. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.