Measurement and interpretation of the velocity space correlation of a laboratory plasma fluctuation with laser induced fluorescence

A technique for probing velocity space correlations has been developed using laser-induced fluorescence. In this paper, a description of the experimental setup is given, with results to follow in a later publication. The experiment consists of a cylindrical plasma column 3 m long and radius similar to 0.25 cm, holding singly-charged argon ions (Ar II) with density n similar to 10(9) cm(-3), T-e similar to 5 eV, T-i,T-parallel to similar to .06 eV, and a 1 kG axial magnetic field. Two separate metastable lines are excited by single frequency lasers at 611 nm and 668 nm. These lasers may tune with a precision of .01 pm. The separate lasers are used to measure independent slices of the velocity distribution function. To confirm the velocity distribution and magnetic field, the Doppler-broadened, sigma-polarized Zeeman line for each transition is measured. With this, the absolute parallel component of ion velocity subject to LIF can be determined. The two separate lasers then give us a signal as a function of two separate parallel ion velocities. Two point correlation is used to reduce the noise floor on the plasma fluctuation. This fluctuation is then investigated as a function of the difference in velocity.