Application of Non-Linear Optical Methods to Plasma Diagnostics

The application of non-linear optical methods nowadays allows the measurement of an increasing number of specific plasma quantities which were previously not amenable to diagnostics. Among those are state resolved measurements of molecular density distributions, sensitive measurement of light atomic radical densities, electric field measurements, and determination of quenching rates. In this paper an ovewiew of the available techniques and trends is given. Some selected topics are discussed in more detail