Sound-velocity measurements in gases by laser-induced electrostrictive gratings

Laser-induced electrostrictive gratings have been applied to measure the adiabatic sound velocity in various gases on a single-pulse basis. The gratings are generated by the interference of two parallel polarized, crossed excitation beams arising from a pulsed Nd: YAG laser at 532.1 nm, and are detected by diffracting a probe beam originating from a cw Ar+ laser operating single-line at 514.5 nm. Measurements were performed in the overlap volume of unfocused and focused excitation beams. Using unfocused beams, the sound velocities in various gases at pressures of 5 bar were measured with a statistical error for single-pulse measurements of about 0.3%. With focused beams, the accuracy of the measurements is reduced because of the propagation of the sound waves out of the smaller overlap volume of 0.2 mm diameter and 4 mm length. Measurements with focused beams were performed in air and CO2, with an error of about 1%.