Abstract
Langmuir double probe and Thomson scattering measurements of density and temperature were made on a plasma with a view to estimating the reliability of probe measurements. The plasma used was the afterglow of a small θ‐pinch plasma for which density and temperature were of the order of 1015 cm−3 and 1 eV, respectively. There was close agreement between probe measurement and scattering measurement of the electron temperature while the density as measured by the probe was lower by a factor of about 4 as compared to the scattering measurement.