Emission from weakly nonideal helium plasmas produced in flash lamps

High pressure pulsed arcs produced in flash lamps filled with pure helium a re applied for the generation of weakly nonideal plasmas characterized by a temperature T similar to 2eV and a-coupling parameter Gamma similar to 0.1 (ratio of the mean electrostatic interaction energy of two charge carriers to their mean kinetic energy). Radiative emission from flash lamps in the spectral range 300-850 nm is measured and calculated, taking into account t he nonideal effects (through plasma quasistatic microfields) and the inhomo geneity of the are plasma. Radial profiles of temperature and particle dens ities are deduced from the measurements of neutral line intensities and tra nsverse distributions of emission. Temperature and electron density values are also obtained from absorption and laser interferometric measurements, r espectively. Calculated and measured plasma spectra obtained are in good ag reement at electron densities similar to 10(18) cm(-3). [S1063-651X(98)1321 2-9].