Funds are provided for equipment to improve an existing instructional plasma dynamics laboratory. The first objective is to obtain the necessary equipment to introduce several new experiments which are of current interest and relevance to plasma science. The second objective is to modernize existing experiments. The first objective will be met by obtaining equipment to be used in new experiments which will demonstrate either new plasma diagnostics or modern uses for traditional plasmas. Acquisition of a radio frequency generator will be used in new plasma processing experiments on semiconductors and other materials. An important laser-induced fluorescence diagnostic which gives information about plasma chemistry will be implemented by acquiring a dye laser. The second objective will be met by modernizing the existing experiments. A personal computer (PC) with an analog to digital plug-in board will be used to digitally acquire and store data from experiments. This PC will be used in conjunction with several other new pieces of digital data acquisition equipment: a spectrograph with a motorized grating for emission spectroscopy, a sweep voltage supply for digital Langmuir probe measurements and a microwave sweep generator for cavity perturbation (electron density) measurements. A turbo-molecular pump will provide experience with modern vacuum technology.
