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Abstract
The excitation temperatures of sputtered gadolinium and uranium atoms in an argon hollow cathode discharge have been determined by diode laser-excited optogalvanic spectroscopy. These results have been compared to those determined by conventional emission spectroscopy. It was found that the temperatures derived from each method do not differ very much, but the optogalvanic method revealed a better standard deviation uncertainty due to the good signal-to-background ratios and excellent spectral resolutions. Temperature variations with discharge currents ranging from 15 to 50 mA have been examined.