Simultaneous identification of multi-combustion-intermediates of alkanol-air flames by femtosecond filament excitation for combustion sensing

Laser filamentation produced by the propagation of intense laser pulses in flames is opening up new possibility in application to combustion diagnostics that can provide useful information on understanding combustion processes, enhancing combustion efficiency and reducing pollutant products. Here we present simultaneous identification of multiple combustion intermediates by femtosecond filament excitation for five alkanol-air flames fueled by methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, n-butanol, and n-pentanol. We experimentally demonstrate that the intensities of filament-induced photoemission signals from the combustion intermediates C, C₂, CH, CN increase with the increasing number of carbons in the fuel molecules, and the signal ratios between the intermediates (CH/C, CH/C₂, CN/C, CH/C₂, CN/CH) are different for different alkanol combustion flames. Our observation provides a way for sensing multiple combustion components by femtosecond filament excitation in various combustion conditions that strongly depend on the fuel species.