Abstract
THE Thomson scattering of light by free electrons has not yet been observed in a laboratory plasma—the cross-section for the process is small and until recently no suitable source of light has been available. The advent of a very bright monochromatic light source in the form of the optical maser has markedly changed the situation, however, and in this communication a method is proposed for measuring the temperature and the relative density of electrons in a plasma from the Doppler broadening and the intensity of light scattered from an optical maser beam.
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References
Collins, R. J., and Nelson, D. F., paper presented at a Conference on Optical Instruments and Techniques, London, July 1961.
See Chandrasekhar, S., Radiative Transfer, Chap. 12 (Oxford Univ. Press, 1950).
Maiman, T. H., Phys. Rev., 123, 1145 (1961).
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HUGHES, T. A New Method for the Determination of Plasma Electron Temperature and Density from Thomson Scattering of an Optical Maser Beam. Nature 194, 268–269 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1038/194268b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/194268b0
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