Laser signals from flame species

Figure 18. Experimental arrangement used in the author s laboratory to measure laser-induced fluorescence signals from flame species...

Laser-induced fluorescence is a sensitive, spatially resolved technique for the detection and measurement of a variety of flame radicals. In order to obtain accurate number densities from such measurements, the observed excited state population must be related to total species population therefore the population distribution produced by the exciting laser radiation must be accurately predicted. At high laser intensities, the fluorescence signal saturates (1, 2, 3 ) and the population distribution in molecules becomes independent of laser intensity and much less dependent on the quenching atmosphere (4). Even at saturation, however, the steady state distribution is dependent on the ratio of the electronic quenching to rotational relaxation rates (4, 5, 6, 7). When steady state is not established, the distribution is a complicated function of state-to-state transfer rates. 

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