Magnetic Field Imaging In A Laboratory Plasma

In laboratory plasmas, arrays of probes have typically been used to measure the evolution of the magnetic field topology. Here, we present initial image-based measurements of the magnetic topology in a low-temperature plasma using a purely optical diagnostic. Laser induced fluorescence measurements of neutral velocity distribution functions are made using a fast camera, imaging the Zeeman splitting of sigma -peaks in neutral argon. The separation of sigma -peaks provides spatially resolved magnetic field magnitude measurements with a detection threshold on the order of 10 G.