title: Feasibility of characterizing laser-ablated carbon plasmas via planar laser induced fluorescence.
abstract: Planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) imaging can potentially assess ion distributions and coupling in the context of super-Alfvénic ablation plasma expansions into magnetized background plasmas. In this feasibility study, we consider the application of PLIF to rapidly expanding carbon plasmas generated via energetic laser ablation of graphite. By utilizing hydrodynamic and collisional-radiative simulations, we identify schemes accessible to commercially available tunable lasers for the C I atom, the C II ion, and the C V ion. We then estimate the signal-to-noise ratios yielded by the schemes under reasonable experimental configurations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. AntonBondarenko@ymail.com
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Bondarenko
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Schaeffer
authors.forename: E T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Everson
authors.forename: C G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Constantin
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Niemann