WP 5: complementary studies

The objectives of work package 5 on complementary studies is the generation of fundamental data on reaction rate coefficients to enable accurate of glow-discharge modelling calculations based on a new experimental setup that creates a constant vapour pressure of analytically important metals. It is also foreseen to perform measurements of glow discharge spectra of pure elements under typical operating conditions with CCD  and FT spectrometers to establish a searchable database of spectral lines. 

Situation at mid-term:

Ihor Korolov in RISSP assembled the new experimental apparatus that will be used for reaction rate measurements. New computer-controlled pulsed power supplies have been built and the operation of the sputtered Cu source has been tested. Atomic absorption measurements show that the density of Cu during the helium discharge can be controlled from approximately 10^9 1/cm3 up to 5x10^11 1/cm3. In order to better understand the processes taking place in the discharge, a tungsten Langmuir probe was installed inside the cell. Preliminary measurements using Langmuir probe showed relatively high density (n_e approx. 10^10 1/cm3) of high-energy electrons (T_e > 0.5 eV) inside the cell during the Hollow Cathode discharge pulse, therefore a minor re-design of the apparatus is necessary. The apparatus includes a wide variety of measuring and controlling devices, therefore a data acquisition system has been designed and built to facilitate controlling, monitoring and measuring processes.

At LECO instrumente Plzen, the goal of the project is to find, identify and characterize virtually all measurable lines appearing in the spectrum. This requires, besides other things, special means of data processing, oriented to searching for lines in the spectra and to manipulation of large lists of lines. Some methods to extract the desired information from the spectra have been summarized in a paper. Also the performance of the CCD and FTS instruments related to the catalogue is described there, together with suggestions of how to combine information from different instruments for the purpose of the catalogue. In 2007, most of the work on the catalogue was done by Z. Weiss - no ESR was involved until spring 2008. Viktoria Weinstein then shortly visited the laboratory of LECO in Prague to get some experience with commercial GDS systems. Agnieszka Zlotorowicz came recently to IFW Dresden and started some work on the Aryelle CCD instrument related to this project, under the supervision of Dr Hoffmann.