A generalization of Abel inversion to non-axisymmetric density distribution

Abel inversion is currently used in laser-plasma studies in order to estima te the electronic density n(e) from the phase-shift map delta phi obtained via interferometry. The main limitation of the Abel method is due to the as sumption of axial symmetry of the electronic density, which is often hardly fulfilled. In this paper we present an improvement to the Abel inversion t echnique in which the axial symmetry condition is relaxed by means of a tru ncated Legendre polynomial expansion in the azimuthal angle. With the hel o f simulated interferograms, we will show that the generalized Abel inversio n generates accurate densities maps when applied to non-axisymmetric densit y sources. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.