Measurement of plasma density in the discharge maintained in a nonuniform gas flow by a high-power terahertz-wave gyrotron

We performed measurements of plasma density in a “point-like” discharge, which is generated in a nonuniform flow of a gas (argon) under the action of high-power terahertz gyrotron radiation with a frequency of 0.67 THz, a power of 40 kW, and a pulse duration of 20 μs. The nonuniform flow was produced by injecting the gas to the vacuum chamber through a small hole (0.14 mm in diameter) under a background pressure at a level of 0.01 Torr. The discharge developed and was localized only in a small region of space (about 1 mm) near the gas injection hole, where the pressure was high (close to the atmospheric one) and the breakdown conditions (the “point-like” discharge) were fulfilled. The density of electrons in the discharge was measured by observing the Stark broadening of the atomic radiation line Hα of hydrogen (656.3 nm) which was present in the discharge as a minor admixture. The plasma density in the discharge was equal to about 2 × 1016 cm−3, which exceeds the cut-off density for a frequency of 0.67 THz used to maintain the discharge.