Measuring the Ion Temperature of a Plasma Jet Using a Two-Dimensional Optical Fiber Array for an Improved Spectroscopic Analysis to Study the Possibility of Pre-heating During Plasma Compression

Outlined is our arrangement to measure the ion temperature of a plasma jet via Doppler-broadening spectroscopy to investigate the possibility of pre-heating plasma during plasma compression. The jet, formed by puffing a controlled amount of Argon gas into Embry-Riddle’s cylindrical vacuum chamber and then ionizing it via high-voltage electronically switched capacitor banks, is regulated to undergo magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) current-driven instabilities and magnetic reconnection, and is ultimately terminally collided with a gas cloud [1]. Ion temperature measurement of plasma is inferred by spectroscopic analysis [2] [3]. To improve the fidelity of our spectroscopy, the presented method implements a unique assemblage of 54 optical fiber cables into a systematic two-dimensional array, broadening the area of observation. With this, we aim to develop our analysis of instability-induced ion heating and its contribution to collisional plasma heating, thus shedding light on the possibility of pre-heating the plasma during plasma compression.