The MPD arc as a plasmadynamic laser source

The paper reports results of measurements of local plasma properties (electron density and temperature, radiance, and population density) in the recombining plasma flow of a high power (100 kW) quasi-steady MPD arc designed as a plasmadynamic laser source. The profiles of electron density and temperature and the populations of excited states of Ar II show large deviations from LTE and indicate the existence of population inversions between the 4d and 4p states.