Interferometer method using abel inversion to deduce a mapping of helium gas density and temperature

Abstract

In this work is presented an optical method using the Mach–Zehnder Interferometer for diagnose a pure helium gas subjected to a stationary point‐plane corona dischargeat atmospheric pressure, and visualize the spatial map of refraction index, density and temperature.The Mach‐Zehnder interferometer that we have applied here is assumed to be cylindrically symmetric and the distance between electrodes equals 6 mm.By studying the interferograms obtained in the experiment, it is possible to determine the distribution of the refraction index and extract the density and temperature through the Gladstone–Dale relation and the ideal gas law respectively. The obtained results are in close agreement with values available in the literature.The obtained results show that the rate variation of the density is varying from 20 to 40% in all the space. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:393–398, 2016