Experimental study of rotational nonequilibrium in low density N ₂ jets using REMPI

In the present study, we measure the rotational population in supersonic nitrogen free jets using a REMPI (resonantly enhanced multi-photon ionization) method, which is not influenced by secondary electrons, unlike an electron beam method. Nitrogen ions are detected as a REMPI signal and its spectra depending on the wavelength of an irradiated laser beam are analyzed to measure rotational temperature through the Boltzmann plot. Nitrogen gas expands into a vacuum chamber from a sonic nozzle with a D=0.50mm diameter, setting P₀D (P₀: source pressure), depending inversely on the nozzle Knudsen number, at 15 Torr-mm or lower. In the case of P₀D=15.0, the rotational temperature distribution along the centerline of the jet, measured by Boltzmann plot, coincides with Marrone's data measured by electron beam fluorescence, and the rotational relaxation rate Zr calculated by the relaxation equation results in 1.3. However, the non-Boltzmann rotational distribution appears evidently in the supersonic free molecular nitrogen flows for P ₀D≤15 Torr-mm and as a decrease in the P₀D, the deviation from the Boltzmann distribution and the partial freezing of the population arise more upstream.