Gas temperature determination in an argon non-thermal plasma at atmospheric pressure from broadenings of atomic emission lines

Abstract In this work a new spectroscopic method, allowing gas temperature determination in argon non-thermal plasmas sustained at atmospheric pressure, is presented. The method is based on the measurements of selected pairs of argon atomic lines (Ar I 603.2 nm/Ar I 549.6 nm, Ar I 603.2 nm/Ar I 522.1 nm, Ar I 549.6 nm/Ar I 522.1 nm). For gas temperature determination using the proposed method, there is no need of knowing the electron density, neither making assumptions on the degree of thermodynamic equilibriumexisting in the plasma. The values of the temperatures obtained using this method, have been compared with the rotational temperaturesderived from the OH ro-vibrational bands, using both, the well-known Boltzmann-plot technique and the best fitting to simulated ro-vibrational bands. A very good agreement has been found.