Time-resolved plasma spectroscopy of diatomic molecular cyanide

In this work, measurements of cyanide (CN) molecular spectra following laser-induced optical breakdown are communicated. The recorded time-resolved data are Abel inverted to determine the spatial distributions of the maximum CN signals and to evaluate molecular excitation temperatures. The experiments are conducted in a 1:1 CO2:N2 gas mixture contained in a cell kept at atmospheric pressure, and the micro-plasma is generated using 150 mJ, 6 ns Q-switched Nd:YAG laser radiation. The optical emissions from the micro-plasma are dispersed using a 0.64 m spectrometer and are recorded along the wavelength and slit dimensions using an intensified charge-coupled device.