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EPJ Techniques and Instrumentation
Fig. 1 | EPJ Techniques and Instrumentation

Fig. 1

From: Non-invasive assessment of plasma parameters inside an ion thruster combining optical emission spectroscopy and principal component analysis

Fig. 1

Schematic description of the work flow necessary to extract plasma parameters from an experimental optical emission spectrum S′(λ) by comparison with microscopic theory. The theoretical model contains a microscopic description of the plasma as well as of the electronic states of its ions and atoms. The occupation of these states needs to be modeled based on the microscopic processes inside the plasma. The intensities of the optical transitions need to be calculated based on the occupation of the electronic states and the transition matrix elements in order to obtain a theoretical spectrum Stheo(λ), which can then be compared to the response-corrected experimental spectrum to obtain the plasma parameters

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