# State-by-state emission spectra fitting for non-equilibrium plasmas: OH spectra of surface barrier discharge at argon/water interface

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel software tool for state-by-state fitting of emission spectra in non-equilibrium plasmas, enabling detailed analysis of OH spectra at argon/water interfaces, revealing overpopulation of certain vibrational states.

## Contribution

The paper presents a new, user-friendly software for precise, temperature-independent spectral analysis, applied to complex OH spectra in surface streamer discharges, with novel insights into vibrational energy transfer.

## Key findings

- OH(A) states with specific quantum numbers are overpopulated.
- The software effectively constructs Boltzmann plots from overlapping spectra.
- Spatial and phase-resolved vibrational temperatures are quantified.

## Abstract

Optical emission spectroscopy applied to non-equilibrium plasmas in molecular gases can give important information on basic plasma parameters, including the rotational, vibrational temperatures and densities of the investigated radiative states. In order to precisely understand the non-equilibrium of rotational-vibrational state distribution from investigated spectra without limiting presumptions, a state-by- state temperature-independent fitting procedure is the ideal approach. In this paper we present a novel software tool developed for this purpose, freely available for scientific community. The introduced tool offers a convenient way to construct Boltzmann plots even from partially overlapping spectra, in user-friendly environment. We apply the novel software to the challenging case of OH spectra in surface streamer discharges generated from the triple-line of argon/water/dielectrics interface. After the barrier discharge is characterised by ICCD and electrical measurements, the spatially and phase resolved rotational temperatures from N$_2$ (C-B) and OH(A-X) spectra are measured, analysed and compared. The precise analysis shows that OH(A) states with quantum numbers (v' = 0, 9 $\leq$ N' $\leq$ 13) are overpopulated with respect to the found two-Boltzmann distribution. We hypothesise that fast vibrational-energy transfer is responsible for this phenomenon observed here for the first time. Finally, the vibrational temperature of the plasma and the relative populations of hot and cold OH(A) states are quantified spatially and phase resolved.