Ultrafast laser diagnostics for mapping radicals in atmospheric pressure plasma-assisted processes – ULTRAMAP

Reactive atmospheric plasmas are increasingly used in advanced technologies for materials processing, environmental, energy, biomedical and aerospace applications. Technological breakthroughs require a fundamental plasma understanding, in particular kinetics of atomic and molecular radicals that are scarcely known today. The reason is the lack of precise kinetic data for plasma modeling, while diagnostic techniques are facing severe challenges including very short characteristic times (below ns) and very small dimensions (below mm). The project objective is to develop advanced laser spectroscopic techniques for radical detection, such as two-photon absorption laser induced fluorescence using ultrafast picosecond and femtosecond lasers. The final goal of the project is to provide a database for key atomic radicals such as O, H, N and C. These transient species are extremely important for a very large number of reactive flow applications.