Sensitivity enhancement of laser absorption spectroscopy for atomic oxygen measurement in microwave air plasma

A high sensitive laser absorption spectroscopy system has been developed for the detection of atomic oxygen in a microwave plasma. Firstly, the sensitivity of this system was evaluated by ring-down time measurement. The effective absorbing pass length was extended up to 640 times as long as that of the conventional laser absorption spectroscopy. Then, the system was applied to the air plasma diagnostics. As a result, the absorption signal from the meta-stable atomic oxygen at 777.19 nm could be observed at the input enthalpy range from 0.93 MJ/kg to 467 MJ/kg. The detected minimum number density was 1.6 × 1011 m−3 with temperature of 388 K, which correspond to the center fractional absorption of 1.4 × 10−2% in the LAS.