Multifrequency laser probing of CO-containing gas mixtures excited in a pulsed discharge

The method of multifrequency laser probing is developed which can be used for diagnostics of the temperature and population of vibrational levels in gas mixtures containing CO molecules in excited vibrational states. The method is tested by studying the dynamics of the gas temperature and population of vibrational levels of the CO molecule in gas mixtures excited by a pulsed discharge. It is shown that the method provides the reduction of the gas temperature measurement error down to 3%. It is found that the population of lower vibrational levels in the CO–O₂ mixture can exceed the population of levels in CO–He and CO–N₂ laser mixtures by several times.