Spectroscopic interpretation and velocimetry analysis of fluctuations in a cylindrical plasma recorded by a fast camera

Fast visible imaging is used on a cylindrical magnetized argon plasma produced by thermionic discharge in the Mirabelle device. To link the information collected with the camera to a physical quantity, fast camera movies of plasma structures are compared to Langmuir probe measurements. High correlation is found between light fluctuations and plasma density fluctuations. Contributions from neutral argon and ionized argon to the overall light intensity are separated by using interference filters and a light intensifier. Light emitting transitions are shown to involve a metastable neutral argon state that can be excited by thermal plasma electrons, thus explaining the good correlation between light and density fluctuations. The propagation velocity of plasma structures is calculated by adapting velocimetry methods to the fast camera movies. The resulting estimates of instantaneous propagation velocity are in agreement with former experiments. The computation of mean velocities is discussed.