STUDIES ON FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A NEW ANALYTICAL SOURCE

MICROWAVE PLASMA TORCH(MPT) DISCHARGE

Abstract

Some fundamental studies on the newly developed analytical source---microwave plasma torch (MPT) were carried out. The computed tomographic study of the source showed there was a central channel low in the discharge and the most favorable analytical zone is between 5 to 10mm above the top of the torch. Studies on electron temperature, electron number density, gas temperature, excitation temperature and ionization degrees of selected elements in the discharge showed the source deviated substantially from local thermodynamic equilibrium.