Development of a digital optical diagnostic system for the CASPER GEC rf reference cell.

The development and implementation of a completely digital optical analysis system for dusty plasma research has been completed. This system minimizes data loss during acquisition and processing and allows image data to be acquired much more quickly and efficiently than in previous analog methods. The automated camera-lens system has been shown to be successful in imaging plasma discharge regions at a sufficient acquisition rate with multiple images to provide ease of analysis concerning position and velocity of particles and ordering of the crystal lattice. Analysis techniques have been improved due primarily to uncompromised raw data with Matlab providing a unique analysis toolset for processing data via PIV and PTV algorithms. PIV algorithms have been shown to have the advantage of greatly reducing computation time and the ability to calculate particle velocities when individual particles are not resolvable, while PTV algorithms provide more specific information about dust grain interactions and more precise velocity calculations.