title: Quantitative schlieren techniques applied to high current arc investigations.
abstract: Applications of quantitative schlieren techniques to pulsed high current electric arcs are described. A new formalism for the Abel inversion is derived that does not start from the small angle approximation. The numerical treatment of experimental data is given special attention. A pulsed argon laser was constructed that gives enough background intensity to outshine a 2000-A arc. Several high speed schlieren techniques were tried to obtain quantitative information about the density and temperature in the neighborhood of the arc.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kogelschatz
authors.forename: W R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Schneider