Laser induced Fluorescence

Among the newest measurement techniques are those based on laser induced fluorescence. The first successful application of fluorescence imaging was reported in 1982. Despite this short history LIF techniques have become very powerful and are the most widely used non-intrusive techniques for gas measurement. This is mainly due to their high signal strength as compared to the main competitors (i.e. Rayleigh scattering and Raman scattering) as shown in Chap. 7 (Techniques Based on Light Scattering) of this book. This high signal strength make two-dimensional measurements with excellent time and space resolution possible. The principal applications of LIF are the measurement of minority species concentrations and temperatures. In special arrangements of the LIF probe, however, pressure and velocity distributions have also been obtained by fluorescence measurements.