A Fast Interferometer Using a Nitrogen Laser for Dense Plasmas

Abstract
A Mach-Zehnder interferometer utilizing a short pulse (5 ns FWHM) nitrogen laser has been built and successfully operated. This system is capable of measuring plasma electron densities higher than 1020 cm-3 and is simple as well as inexpensive. The same system can be used for schlieren and shadow photography. Examples of an interferogram and a shadowgraph of a high density plasma are presented.