Abstract

Recent developments in the application of novel light sources to reactive flow sensing will be presented. Laser based sensors can be used for in-situ probing of hostile environments, such as the high temperature reactive gases found inside a jet flame. Ideally, such a sensor combines a wide spectral coverage with a high wavelength tuning rate, thus allowing simultaneous monitoring of multiple species at rates matching the turbulent flow scales. A newly developed supercontinuum sensor offers such capabilities, as it is capable of sweeping over a several hundred nanometre wide wavelength range at MHz rates. For certain applications it is furthermore necessary to resolve the spatial scales of the flow, which requires the use of fluorescence based techniques. This has traditionally required pulsed high-power lasers, but we have recently demonstrated that compact GaN diode lasers can equally well be employed for such measurements.