Optical emission spectroscopy observations of fast pulsed capillary discharge plasmas

We present time resolved optical emission spectroscopic (OES) observations of a low energy, pulsed capillary discharage (PCD). The optical emission from the capillary plasma and plasma jets emitted from the capillary volume was recorded with with a SpectraPro 275 spectrograph, fitted with a MCP gated OMA system, with 15 ns time resolution. The discharge was operated with different gases, including argon, nitrogen, hydrogen and methane, in a repetitive pulsed discharge mode at 10-50 Hz, with, 10-12 kV pulses applied at the cathode side. The time evolution of the electron density was measured using Stark broadening of the Hβ line. Several features of the capillary plasma dynamics, such as ionization growth, wall effects and plasma jet evolution, are inferred from the time evolution of the optical emission.