A. Ohzu et al., Enhancement of electron temperature in a laser-induced plasma using a radio-frequency electric field, PHYS PLASMA, 7(2), 2000, pp. 770-772
An experimental study of the enhancement of the electron temperature of a l
aser-induced plasma by use of radio-frequency dielectric heating has been c
arried out. A radio-frequency electric field of 140 MHz is used to heat the
plasma produced by multistep resonant photoinization. It is clearly observ
ed that the electron temperature increases from 0.3 to 1.0 eV when a radio-
frequency input power of 1.0 W is applied. Also, applying heating induces a
plasma oscillation. This is due to the generation of ion waves in the plas
ma, and therefore, means that the enhanced electron temperature is higher t
han the ion temperature. It is expected that this method will improve the e
fficiency for extracting ions rapidly from a laser-induced plasma in atomic
vapor laser isotope separation. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S
1070-664X(00)05302-7].