Monochromatic imaging to obtain spatial distributions of HID lamp radiating species

Summary form only given, as follows. A method is presented for measuring the spatial distributions of emission coefficients of radiating species inside high intensity discharge (HID) lamps. Such distributions are useful for understanding the physical properties of the discharge and for predicting the distribution of color projected from optical systems. The image of the arc is projected through a monochromator onto a CCD array camera. The signal from the camera is captured and digitized. The images are then processed using two-dimensional signal processing techniques. The optical system is designed such that the image is a two-dimensional, projection of parallel rays through the arc. One or more projections can be used to tomographically reconstruct the three-dimensional spatial distribution of the radiating species. Optically thin emission lines have been used to obtain quantitative information and optically thick lines have been used to obtain qualitative information. The motivation for developing this experimental technique is presented and the experimental shown. Details of the procedure used to process the data, calibrate the system, and to quantify systematic and random errors are given. Results from specific experiments are displayed.