A universal small-sized vacuum installation for gas-kinetic investigations

A small-sized experimental LEMPUS installation, which is designed for studies in the fields of rarefied gas dynamics, gas kinetics, optics of atoms and ions, and plasmochemistry on the basis of advanced diagnostic techniques, is described. The main advantage of the LEMPUS system is the adaptation of the most informative methods (electron-beam diagnostics and molecular-beam mass spectroscopy) to pulse regimes and their integration in a common diagnostic system. The measurement methods in impulse gas and gas-mixture flows, including those under condensation conditions, are described for typical experimental situations.