An absorption sensor system for arcjet multi-parameter measurements

Diode-laser absorption computerized tomography is applied to the diagnosis of the plume generated by an arcjet thruster A protection stack is designed to carry a laser beam into the arcjet flow field at any location in the va cuum chamber. The experimental system is developed to reconstruct the maps of the temperature and the atomic number density by utilizing a small numbe r of line-of-sight measurements. It has been demonstrated to be a convenien t and useful method for the measurement of plume parameters and for monitor ing the performance of the arcjet.