Spectrochimica Acta Electronica

A LabVIEW program for determining confidence intervals of

Abel-inverted radial emission profiles
B
George C.-Y. Chan, Gary M. Hieftje
*
Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
Received 25 February 2005; accepted 19 August 2005
Abstract
A LabVIEW-based program for the determination of confidence intervals in Abel inversion is described in detail. Confidence intervals are
determined from the noise level in the input lateral-emission profile. It is first assumed that the noise-free lateral profile is a smooth and continuous
function which can be satisfactorily approximated by a polynomial fit. Random noise is then added to produce a profile that is statistically
identical to the experimental lateral profile. Because the number of generated lateral profiles can be as large as desired, the corresponding Abel-
inverted radial profiles provide a basis for determination of the confidence intervals. The program is capable of determining the optimal order of
the fitting polynomial for the input lateral profile. Two methods for computing the Abel inversion calculation, the Nestor Olsen and the Hankel
Fourier algorithms, are built into the program. If necessary, the input lateral profile can be smoothed by a built-in moving-average function. A
detailed description of the program and its associated functions is presented, followed by a characterization of its performance in the determination
of Abel-inversion confidence intervals for several test emission profiles.
D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: LabVIEW; Abel inversion; Plasma; Radial profile
1. Introduction
Abel inversion is a relatively simple but powerful technique
in plasma diagnostics; it transforms lateral spatially resolved
data into the radially resolved equivalent for a cylindrically
symmetrical source [15]. However, it is also well known that
Abel inversion is very sensitive to noise that is present in the
measured lateral-emission profile and that the effect of the
noise is accumulated in the radial center of the emission source,
in many cases the region of greatest interest. Since noise has a
crucial effect on the Abel-inverted profile and cannot be
completely eliminated even with advanced techniques of data
treatment (e.g., smoothing and noise filtering), the effect of
noise on the accuracy and precision of the Abel-inverted radial
profile needs to be considered.
However, it is not straightforward to theoretically follow
error propagation in Abel inversion. Also, it is difficult to
estimate the effect of noise on the reliability of the inverted
profile, even if the magnitude of the noise is known. In a recent
paper [6], we have described a novel methodology to estimate
confidence intervals for Abel-inverted radial emissivity. Once
the confidence intervals for an Abel-inverted radial profile are
estimated, comparisons between two radial profiles and
estimation of reliable regions in the inverted-radial profiles
become straightforward. In the present work, a program written
in the National Instruments graphical language, LabVIEW, has
been developed to implement the developed methodology to
simplify the calculation of confidence intervals in Abel
inversion. The primary strengths of this program, supplied in
software form on the accompanying diskette, are that it
provides researchers with a tool for Abel-inversion calculation
0584-8547/$ - see front matter D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.sab.2005.08.016
i
This article is an electronic publication in Spectrochimica Acta Electronica
(SAE), a section of Spectrochimica Acta Part B (SAB). This printed text is
accompanied by one or more electronic files archived on the SAE homepage
(http://www.elsevier.com/homepage/saa/sab/) under the name FA LabVIEW
program for determining confidence intervals of Abel-inverted radial emission
profiles_ and identified by 60/1486/05, where 60 is the issue number, 1486 is
the number of the first page of this printed text, and 05 is the two digit year.
Readers of this journal are permitted to copy the contents of the electronic
archive for their personal use under the conditions stated under the Copyright
and Disclaimer at the end of this article, and generally in the Notes for
Contributors published elsewhere in this issue.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 812 855 2189; fax: +1 812 855 0985.
E-mail address: hieftje@indiana.edu (G.M. Hieftje).
Spectrochimica Acta Part B 60 (2005) 1486 1501
www.elsevier.com/locate/sab
that will work across computer platforms, and is flexible
enough to handle a variety of calculation situations and options
(data smoothing, variable numbers of input data points for each
inversion, user-adjustable numbers of data points in the output
of the Abel-inverted radial profile, user-definable range of
orders for the fitting polynomial to be scanned with automatic
optimization).
The programming language LabVIEW was chosen for
several reasons. First, unlike other text-based programming
languages (e.g., C++), LabVIEW is a graphic-based language,
so functions are represented as graphical icons (called virtual
instruments, VIs, in LabVIEW terminology) and many
common data processing subroutines (e.g., statistical calcula-
tion of mean and standard deviation, data sorting, polynomial
fitting, etc.) are already built-in and available simply by calling
a single VI icon. Second, LabVIEW programs can be run on
different computer platforms (Windows, Mac OS, Sun Solaris
and Linux). Third, researchers in the spectrochemical commu-
nity probably are familiar with LabVIEW. For example, several
LabVIEW-based programs have already been published in the
electronic section of this journal [79]. Lastly, it is possible for
researchers to incorporate the algorithm into their existing or
modified LabVIEW programs for data acquisition or instru-
ment control in most cases where LabVIEW is used. The major
disadvantage of using LabVIEW to develop this purely
calculation-oriented program is that the user must have the
LabVIEW software in order to execute the program.
2. Program concept
2.1. Principle of methodoverview
There are altogether three assumptions in the algorithm.
First, it is assumed that the noise-free lateral-emission profile,
I(x), is a smooth and continuous function, and therefore, it is
reasonable to fit the lateral profile with some appropriate
continuous mathematical function. Second, the residuals
between the fitted mathematical function and the measured
lateral profile are due solely to measurement noise. A
measurement-noise profile can then be obtained which
describes the magnitude of random noise in the lateral-
emission profile. Third, the measurement noise follows a
Gaussian (normal) distribution with a mean of zero and a
standard deviation defined by the measurement noise.
Through random-number generation, random noise with a
magnitude similar to the measurement noise can then be added
to the fitted mathematical function (called the base profile in the
subsequent discussion, which is assumed to be the true
lateral-emission profile), and a new set of lateral emission
profiles (called iteration profiles in the subsequent discussion)
can be generated. Abel inversion of this set of lateral iteration
profiles in turn generates a new set of Abel-inverted radial
profiles. Each inverted radial profile can be regarded as
originating from a lateral profile with a similar noise magnitude,
and thus is statistically identical to the original lateral profile.
When this set of iteration profiles is large, statistical confidence
intervals can be obtained at each radial position.
2.2. Generation of the lateral-emission base profile
In this program, a polynomial was chosen to fit the lateral-
emission profile due to its ease in computation and program-
ming, and its ability to fit most common types of lateral
profiles from typical emission sources [6]. Of an appropriate
order, the fitted polynomial is assumed to represent the noise-
free lateral profile (the base lateral profile). Fig. 1 shows a
lateral-emission profile with 3% random noise fitted with a
10th-degree polynomial. The fitted polynomial is then assumed
to represent the noise-free lateral-emission profile.
The polynomial-fitting procedure is carried out for all
profiles, either those originally measured or those artificially
generated, as an effective means for noise filtering [10].
2.3. Generation of noise profile
In general, the residue between the measured-lateral profile
and the base profile (i.e., the fitted polynomial) consists of two
components. In cases where the order of the fitting polynomial
is appropriate, the major component should be measurement
noise in the lateral-emission profile; the contribution due to
error in the noise-free lateral profile caused by polynomial
fitting would be minor. In this case, it is assumed that the
residue is due solely to measurement noise. To generate the
spatial noise profile, the magnitude (i.e., absolute value) of the
residue is used. Fig. 2 (curve a) shows the fitting residuals from
the data presented in Fig. 1. This residue profile is specific for
the particular lateral-emission profile and the fitting-polyno-
mial from Fig. 1 and cannot be used directly for the generation
of iteration profiles. Otherwise, the noise would probably
resemble the particular pattern in the original lateral emission
profile and would no longer be completely random. Moreover,
the fitting-residue profile is irregular in shape due to the fact
that the fitted polynomial and the measured-lateral profile cross
each other (i.e., residue equals to zero) at points along the
profile. The average of the residue profile should then represent
the mean of the measurement noise. However, it is not
appropriate to average the residuals and assign a constant
noise amplitude along the whole lateral profile, since it is not
justifiable to assume that the noise level is constant at all spatial
locations. To generate a noise profile that represents the
averaged noise level at different lateral positions, the fitting-
residual profile can be smoothed. In this particular program, the
residue is smoothed by a 9-points moving-average window
(curve b in Fig. 2). Even with moving-average smoothing, the
smoothed noise profile retains some features of the fitting-
residue profile. To further smooth out these features and to
obtain a noise profile that represents only the average value of
the noise level, polynomial fitting can be used. It should be
recognized that the absolute noise magnitude might be
correlated with the magnitude of the emission profile;
therefore, the order of the fitting polynomial for the noise
profile should be chosen large enough so it can represent a
lateral emission profile but small enough so features in the
residue-profile can be smoothed out. It has been shown that a
10th-degree polynomial is sufficient to represent most lateral
G.C.-Y. Chan, G.M. Hieftje / Spectrochimica Acta Part B 60 (2005) 14861501 1487
emission profiles [6]. Therefore, a 10th-degree polynomial was
chosen in this program. The polynomial-fitted residue profile
should represent the averaged magnitude of the noise profile
(curve c in Fig. 2).
Finally, it must be recalled that the measurement noise is
assumed to be Gaussian. The two parameters that are typically
used to define a Gaussian distribution are the mean and
standard deviation; the mean value of the noise should be zero.
To simplify computation, the average magnitude of the noise
profile obtained above (cf. Fig. 2) should be transformed in
terms of the standard deviation r. It can be shown that the
averaged absolute deviation from the mean for a Gaussian
distribution is equal to 0.79788r (see Appendix A for a proof).
Therefore, to transform the averaged-magnitude noise profile to
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Relative Lateral Position
(a) Fitting residue
(b) Smoothed residue by 9-point moving-average
(c) Smoothed residue by polynomial fitting
(d) Noise profile expressed in normal standard deviation
Fig. 2. Illustration of how the noise profile is obtained from the measured lateral emission profile and its base profile as shown in Fig. 1. (a) The residue between the
measured and base lateral profile, (b) the residue smoothed by a 9-point moving-average window, (c) a 10th-degree polynomial is fitted to curve b, and (d) the noise
profile is expressed in terms of standard deviation after a correction factor of 0.79788 is applied to curve c.
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Relative Lateral Position
Original Lateral Profile
Base Lateral Profile
Fig. 1. Example of a noisy (3% noise) lateral emission profile and its base profile obtained by a 10th-order polynomial fit.
G.C.-Y. Chan, G.M. Hieftje / Spectrochimica Acta Part B 60 (2005) 14861501 1488
a noise profile expressed in terms of standard deviation, the
magnitude should be divided by a factor of 0.79788. Curve d in
Fig. 2 shows the noise profile expressed in terms of standard
deviation. From this point onwards, the term noise profile
refers to this noise profile expressed as the standard deviation.
2.4. Noise addition and generation of iteration lateral profiles
A train of random numbers with a uniform distribution
between 0 and 1 is generated by a computerized random
number generator. Such a train of random numbers can be
regarded as the value of the cumulative probability value for a
Gaussian distribution (i.e., P(V<Z <z) =generated random
number). When such a train of random numbers is inverted by
a normal distribution, the values z follow a conventional
normal distribution (i.e., mean=0 and standard deviation=1).
Fig. 3 shows schematically how the uniformly distributed
random numbers can be transformed into a normal distribution,
together with normalized histograms (i.e., area equal to 1,
which are equivalent to a probability density function) of data
from 10,000 generated random numbers. From Fig. 3, the
random number generator in LabVIEW is uniform and the
inverted distribution of the generated random numbers resem-
bles a standard normal distribution.
Multiplying the inverted normal distribution of the train of
generated random numbers (cf. Fig. 3) by the noise profile
described above (cf. Fig. 2) yields a random-noise profile for
the measurement. By adding the generated random-noise
profile to the base-lateral profile (which is assumed to be the
true lateral-emission profile), a new set of (noisy) lateral
emission profiles can be obtained. This new set of lateral
profiles will undergo all the Abel-inversion procedures (i.e.,
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Generated Random Standard Normal Numbers, z
The randomly generated
number, x, is converted
to conventional normal
numbers by calculating
the value of z, such that
x dt
t
2
z
=

-
2
exp
2
1

Fig. 3. Schematic diagrams showing how random numbers with a uniform distribution can be transformed to a normal distribution. The histogram shows the
experimental data from 10,000 computer-generated random numbers.
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Relative Lateral Position
Original Lateral Profile
Profile of iteration#1
Profile of iteration#2
Profile of iteration#3
Profile of iteration#4
Fig. 4. Original lateral-emission profile (curve a) and four generated iteration profiles (curves b, c, d, e). Each curve is vertically offset by 0.1 units.
G.C.-Y. Chan, G.M. Hieftje / Spectrochimica Acta Part B 60 (2005) 14861501 1489
including any subsequent smoothing, polynomial fitting (as
noise filter)) as an experimental profile, to yield a cor-
responding new set of Abel-inverted radial profiles [6,11].
Each inverted radial profile is then regarded as being from a
lateral profile that is statistically identical to the original
measured lateral profile. When this set of iteration profiles is
large (a few hundred; see Section 4.3), a statistical confidence
interval can be obtained for each radial position by sorting the
values from all the inverted radial profiles.
2.5. Verification of iteration profiles
This program relies on the supposition that the generated
iteration profiles are statistically identical to the original
measured lateral profiles. Verification of this hypothesis is
necessary. Fig. 4 shows an original lateral profile (with 3%
added noise) and four generated iteration profiles. They are
vertically offset from each other by 0.1 units for clarity. The
five profiles are apparently different but the magnitudes of their
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
0.012
0.014
0.016
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0.024
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Iteration Number
Fig. 5. The residue of polynomial fitting from generated iteration profiles. Iteration 1 (arrow) shows the residue of the original lateral profile.
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
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Iteration Number
Fig. 6. The residue between the Abel-inverted radial profile and the generated iteration profiles. Iteration 1 (arrow) shows the residue of the original lateral profile.
G.C.-Y. Chan, G.M. Hieftje / Spectrochimica Acta Part B 60 (2005) 14861501 1490
noise are visually similar to each other. Now, the residue
between a lateral profile and a fitting polynomial reflects the
averaged noise level. Accordingly, if the noise level in the
iteration profiles is statistically identical to that in the measured
profile, their residues must be similar. Fig. 5 shows the fitting
residues between the iteration profiles and a 10th-degree
polynomial. Each polynomial is individually fitted and the
original lateral-emission profile is counted as iteration 1 in the
program. The fitting residues of the iteration profiles appear
random and there is no experimental evidence that the residues
have drifted from the original lateral profile (iteration 1, see
arrow). Fig. 6 displays the residue between the Abel-inverted
profile and the theoretical profile versus the iteration number.
This residue is related to the accuracy of Abel inversion from
the noisy iteration profiles. Again, there is no experimental
evidence that the residues from the iteration profiles are
different from that of the original profile (iteration 1). From
Figs. 46, it can be concluded that the iteration profiles are
statistically identical to the original lateral profile. It follows
that the confidence intervals measured from these iteration
profiles should accurately represent the uncertainty in radial
emissivity caused by noise in the original lateral profile.
3. Test profiles
In this study, a total of seven test profiles adopted from the
literature were explored. These seven profiles were of various
shapes and degrees of radial uniformity, and some of them
resemble the emission profile of common plasmas (e.g., ICP
and MIP). The mathematical descriptions of the theoretical
radial and lateral emission profiles are listed in our previous
publication [6] and are not repeated here. The theoretical radial
profiles are shown in Fig. 7 to illustrate the various degrees of
radial non-uniformity. The test profiles range from a uniform
radial distribution (Profile #5), to those that show a declining
emissivity from the source center to the edge (Profiles #2, #3
and #6), to profiles with various degrees of a dip in the plasma
center (Profiles #1, #4 and #7). Although data from only one
particular profile are shown in this paper, the program has been
tested with all seven profiles and similar conclusions were
obtained. It is hoped that with such a diverse group of test
profiles, the program is applicable to other arbitrary, but
smooth and continuous, emission profiles.
4. Program functions and performance
Fig. 8 shows the user interface that appears when the
program is opened. The interface is simple and many of the
required input parameters are self-explanatory. It was found
that a single set of parameters can be employed in almost all
cases. The effect of each parameter is described below,
followed by performance evaluations. Details on input file
format, and a list of output files and their descriptions can be
found in Appendix C. In addition, the program is capable of
adding random noise of a predefined magnitude to the lateral
profile by use of a random number generator and inverse
Gaussian distribution function. The function of this noise-
addition capability is to study the effect of noise in the lateral
profile on Abel inversion.
4.1. Abel inversion algorithmsNestorOlsen versus Hankel
Fourier
The program incorporates two Abel inversion methods,
namely, the Nestor Olsen and the Hankel Fourier algorithms.
Details of these two methods can be found in a recent
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Relative Radial Position
Profile#1 Profile#2 Profile#3 Profile#4
Profile#5 Profile#6 Profile#7
Fig. 7. Theoretical radial emissivity of the seven test profiles. See Ref. [6] for a mathematical description of each profile.
G.C.-Y. Chan, G.M. Hieftje / Spectrochimica Acta Part B 60 (2005) 14861501 1491
publication by A

lvarez et al. [5]; only equations in their final

form are included here.
For the Nestor Olsen algorithm (Eq. (1)), the radial
emissivity, ((r), is given by
e r
j
_ _

2
pDx

N1
ij
I x
i
B
j;i
1
where
B
j;i

A
j;i1
A
j;i
for i j 1
A
j;i
for i j
_
and
A
j;i

i
2
j 1
2
_

i 1
2
j 1
2
_
2i 1
For the Hankel Fourier method (Eq. (2)), ((r) is given by
e r
j
_ _

1
2p 2N 1
2
Dx

N
iN
I x
i

N
k0
kcos
ik
2N 1
_ _
J
0
jk
2N 1
_ _
2
where J
0
is the zero-order Bessel function.
The Nestor Olsen method is simple and computationally
easy, while it has been reported that the Hankel Fourier
method gives better accuracy [5]. The effect of the total number
of data points used in the inversion by these two numerical
algorithms was studied here. Fig. 9 shows the relative residue
from the seven Abel-inverted radial test profiles. The relative
residue is defined by Eq. (3) and has a physical meaning
equivalent to the relative error of the area under the calculated
and theoretical profiles.
D
rel

N1
i0
je
calc
r
i
e
theo
r
i
j

N1
i0
e
theo
r
i

3
It is surprising in Fig. 9 that the Hankel Fourier method is
better (smaller relative residue) than the Nestor Olsen method
only for small numbers of data points N. For intermediate value
of N (100 or above), the Nestor Olsen method offers higher
overall accuracy than the Hankel Fourier algorithm. The
discrepancy between the present study and that of A

lvarez et
al. [5] is unknown. The fact that the relative residue increases
when the number of data points goes up for some test profiles
(Profiles #1, #6 and #7) suggests it could be round-off or
truncation errors in our LabVIEW program that causes the
discrepancy. It should be pointed out that our program uses
double-precision (16-digits) numbers in all calculation steps
and that the same results are obtained if the numbers are raised
to extended-precision (32-digits in MS Windows).
Since the Nestor Olsen method gives better accuracy, it is
recommended for use in this program. Moreover, the number
of data points, N, for the algorithm should be greater than 100.
However, it is also shown in Fig. 9 that when N extends
beyond 300, the increase in accuracy is minimal. Therefore, the
recommended number of data points used for the calculation
Fig. 8. Screen shot of the user interface for the developed LabVIEW program.
G.C.-Y. Chan, G.M. Hieftje / Spectrochimica Acta Part B 60 (2005) 14861501 1492
should be set between 100 and 300. In the cases reported
below, N=100 (unless otherwise specified) will be used as this
offers a picture of the worst-case scenario. The Hankel Fourier
method is included in the program for users who may want a
speedy Abel-inversion procedure with a minimal number of
data points.
In this program, the lateral profile is approximated by a
polynomial. Once the fitting parameters of the polynomial are
determined, it is easy to increase or compress the total number
of data points by polynomial interpolation. The dialog box
data points in final Abel-inverted profile allows the user to
set any desired number of data points in the final inverted radial
profile. There are two situations in which one might wish to set
the number of data points in the output radial profile to be
different from that in the input lateral profile. The method used
to calculate the Abel inversion is numerical and, in general, the
accuracy of a numerical method increases with the number of
data points. This behavior is shown in Fig. 9. On the other
hand, an excessive numbers of data points will significantly
lengthen computation time with only a nominal improvement
in accuracy; users may want to reduce the number of data
points in the Abel inversion to save computation resources.
Also, in some situations, two lateral profiles might have a
different number of data points due to instrument set-up; it may
be convenient in data analysis if the radial profiles consist of
equal numbers of data points.
4.2. Degree of fitting polynomial
The two input dialog boxes labeled Start of Polynomial
Fit-Order and End of Polynomial Fit-Order define limits
for polynomial fitting. It has been shown in our previous study
[6] that a polynomial order above 15 provides only minimal
improvement in fitting a noise-free lateral emission profile; in
fact, using a higher polynomial order to fit a noisy lateral
emission profile can degrade the accuracy of the resultant Abel-
inverted radial pattern, since a larger portion of the noise can be
incorporated into the higher-order polynomial. Therefore, in
most cases, the order of the fitting polynomial should not
exceed 15. On the other hand, if the polynomial order is too
small, although it is very effective in filtering out noise in the
lateral profile, the lateral profile may be misrepresented.
Depending on the lateral profile, the minimum polynomial
order that can accurately represent a lateral-emission profile
ranges from about 6 to 10 [6]. Therefore, a minimum
polynomial order 10 should be used for an unknown lateral
profile. Of course, if there is prior knowledge that a lower
polynomial order can accurately represent a particular noise-
free lateral profile, this lower polynomial order can be selected
as the minimum polynomial order to increase the efficiency of
noise filtering. The effect of polynomial order on the accuracy
of fitting an Abel-inverted profile and on the span of the
confidence intervals is demonstrated in Fig. 10a and b. Fig. 10a
and b show the confidence intervals and the mean, respectively,
of the Abel-inverted radial profiles obtained from 300
iterations. In Fig. 10b, the theoretical radial profile and all
the inverted profiles are vertically offset from each other by 0.1
units. Previously [6], we showed that the smaller the span of
the confidence interval at positions along the radial profile, the
more accurately the mean of the Abel-inversion iteration
represents the true profile at those positions. A similar
conclusion applies also to the order of the fitting polynomial.
When Fig. 10a and b are compared, it is clear that the order of
the fitting polynomial that gives the inverted-radial profile the
smallest deviation from the theoretical profile also leads to the
narrowest confidence intervals. In other words, the span of the
10 100 1000
1E-4
1E-3
0.01
0.1
1
Hollow : Nestor-Olsen
Solid : Hankel-Fourier
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Numbers of Data Point in Inversion Algorithm
Profile#1
Profile#2
Profile#3
Profile#4
Profile#5
Profile#6
Profile#7
Fig. 9. Effect of the number of data points on the relative residue from the Nestor Olsen and Hankel Fourier Abel-inversion algorithms.
G.C.-Y. Chan, G.M. Hieftje / Spectrochimica Acta Part B 60 (2005) 14861501 1493
confidence intervals is a useful parameter to indicate the
effectiveness of a particular polynomial to minimize the effect
of lateral-profile noise. In general, for a relatively noise-free
lateral profile, the narrowest span is found for the higher
polynomial orders, while for a lateral profile with a modest
noise level (0.3% or above), the optimum polynomial order
is the one having the lowest order.
In this program, a set of polynomials with orders between
the predefined starting and ending indexes will be individually
fitted to the lateral profile. For each radial position, the final
calculated confidence intervals are the minimum envelope from
this set of fitting polynomials. This procedure of polynomial-
order scanning and enveloping is justified by considering the
physical meaning of confidence interval; it defines the
probability that the true value is within that interval. In any
case, the confidence intervals obtained by different polyno-
mials actually represent a single eventthe Abel-inverted
profile from the input lateral-emission profile, and obviously
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
-0.2
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
U
p
p
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r

C
o
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c
e

L
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o
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Relative Radial Position
Polynomial Order
10
12
13
15
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
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Relative Radial Position
Polynomial Order
10
12
13
15
Theoretical
a
b
Fig. 10. The effect of the order of polynomial fitting on (a) confidence intervals, and (b) mean (each vertically offset by 0.1 units), of the Abel-inverted radial profile
from test profile #4 with 3% added noise. 100 data points were used in the Nestor Olsen method by polynomial interpolation.
G.C.-Y. Chan, G.M. Hieftje / Spectrochimica Acta Part B 60 (2005) 14861501 1494
there exists only one true value from a particular lateral profile.
Therefore, it is reasonable to combine all the confidence
intervals produced by individual polynomials; the true value
should lie between the envelopes with the minimum span.
4.3. Number of iterations
For accurate determination of the confidence intervals, the
number of iteration profiles must be sufficient. Fig. 11 shows
the evolution of the mean and the 95% confidence intervals
(the 97.5% upper limit and the 2.5% lower limit) at radial
position r =0.1R of Profile #3 with 3% noise added. The
dependence of the confidence intervals on the number of
iterations is similar for other radial positions and other profiles.
It is clear that the lower and upper confidence limits stabilize
after about 300 iterations; therefore, this is the recommended
minimum number of iterations. It requires quite a bit of
computation resources to calculate evolution pattern such as
those in Fig. 11. Therefore, the evolution profile is set as an
option in the program and users can request the calculation of
such a profile by clicking the button Calculate evolution
profile (cf. Fig. 8).
4.4. Required number of data points in input lateral-emission
profile
As discussed above, a polynomial order of 10 to 15 is
generally sufficient to represent a lateral emission profile.
Theoretically, a minimum of 11 to 16 data points is then
sufficient to define the fitting polynomial. However, even in the
hypothetical case that the lateral profile is noise-free, using the
minimum number of data points to define the fitting
polynomial could result in an undersampling error. The
purpose of this section is to investigate the minimum required
number of data points in the measured lateral profile which,
when fitted with an appropriate polynomial, can satisfactorily
represent the whole lateral profile.
Fig. 12a shows the relative residues for the seven test
profiles when different numbers of data points in the lateral
profiles are used for polynomial fitting. The number of data
points in the Nestor Olsen Abel-inversion algorithm was held
constant at 200 for all profiles through interpolation after
polynomial fitting to avoid any effect of differences in data
points on the inversion accuracy (cf. Section 4.1). Therefore,
the trend shown in Fig. 12a is due solely to the effect of
number of data points in the input lateral profile. Although
different lateral profiles show dissimilar dependency of
accuracy on the numbers of data point in the lateral profile,
the general trends are similar for all profiles. For a noise-free
lateral profile, a minimum of about 50 data points is required.
Fig. 12b shows the averaged relative residues from the
seven test profiles when various levels of random noise are
present in the lateral profile. The presence of noise greatly
alters the required number of data points for satisfactory Abel
inversion, even when polynomial fitting is used as a noise
filter. Fluctuations in the data presented in Fig. 12b are due to
the fact that individually generated random-noise profiles are
added to each lateral profile. The efficiency of polynomial
fitting as a noise filter depends on the original lateral profile
and the generated noise profile, and accounts for the random
fluctuations in Fig. 12b. For moderate noise levels (e.g., 0.1%
to 0.3%), a minimum of 50 to 70 data points are required; the
requirement increases to about 100 for a noise level of 1%. For
noise levels as high as 3%, the accuracy of Abel inversion
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
0.90
0.95
1.00
1.05
1.10
1.15
1.20
1.25
2.5% Lower Limit
Mean
97.5% Upper Limit
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.
Iteration Number
Fig. 11. Evolution of mean and confidence intervals from 2500 iterations of test profile #3 with 3% added random noise. The radial position is at 0.1R and a 10th-
degree polynomial was used for determination of the base profile.
G.C.-Y. Chan, G.M. Hieftje / Spectrochimica Acta Part B 60 (2005) 14861501 1495
keeps improving as the number of data points increases. Based
on Fig. 12, the number of data points in the measured lateral
profile should be as large as possible and should never be less
than 100. This requirement is not particularly demanding when
an array detector (e.g., CCD) is used. Current array detectors
can provide lateral profiles with many more data points than
this requirement. For example, it is not uncommon for a CCD
to offer greater than 1000 pixels; with proper imaging, the
measured lateral profile can then consist of about 1000 data
points.
4.5. Output of programconfidence intervals for Abel-inverted
profiles
The program computes the 95% confidence intervals and
mean values for the Abel-inverted radial profiles. These
10 100 1000
0.00
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.10
A
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n

R
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v
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R
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s
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d
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e
Number of Data Points used in Polynomial Fitting
Profile#1
Profile#2
Profile#3
Profile#4
Profile#5
Profile#6
Profile#7
10 100 1000
0.00
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.10
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Number of Data Points used in Polynomial Fitting
Noise-free
0.1% Noise
0.3% Noise
1.0% Noise
3.0% Noise
a
b
Fig. 12. Effect of number of data points in the original lateral emission profile for polynomial fitting on (a) noise-free lateral profiles and, (b) lateral profiles with
various noise levels (showing averaged relative residue from the seven test profiles). A 10th-degree polynomial was used for the fitting. Abel inversion was carried
by the Nestor Olsen algorithm with 200 data points.
G.C.-Y. Chan, G.M. Hieftje / Spectrochimica Acta Part B 60 (2005) 14861501 1496
outputs are derived from the minimum span of the confidence
intervals as calculated from the range of predefined poly-
nomials (Section 4.2). Fig. 13 shows the Abel-inverted output
of Profile #3 with 0.3%, 1% and 3% random noise in the lateral
profile. The mean value of the determined emissivity was
omitted from this plot but is available in the program output
file. The mean value is roughly the average between the upper
and lower confidence limits, not surprising if there is a
Gaussian distribution of radial emissivity values (i.e., if random
noise is dominant in the lateral profile) [6]. The confidence
intervals generated by this program agree with the Abel-
inverted profile obtained from direct inversion of noise-free
lateral data for all combinations of lateral profiles and noise
levels studied. Notice that the radial profile from the direct
inversion of noise-free data, instead of the theoretical radial
profile, is used for comparison. The reason is that there is slight
discrepancy between the theoretical radial profile and the Abel-
inverted radial profile generated by the Nestor Olsen algo-
rithm (Section 4.1). When the noise level is low (0.1% and
occasionally for 0.3% for some profiles), the upper and lower
confidence limits are so similar that they practically overlap. In
these cases, the theoretical radial profile and the Abel-inversion
confidence intervals are virtually identical; however, they
might not exactly overlap, due to the slight inaccuracy of the
Nestor Olsen method. This discrepancy, if any, is less than 1%
in most cases and at most about 2%.
In some situations, the lower confidence limits can become
negative (Fig. 10a) at some radial positions. Clearly, a negative
emissivity value is an artifact caused by noise. Moreover, once
a negative emissivity is determined at any point along the radial
profile, this artifact will be carried from that radial position
inward, toward the center of the radial profile; overall, it will
lead to uncertainty in all remaining parts of the radial profile.
The present program automatically rejects those polynomial
orders that give negative emissivity values. Whenever a
negative emissivity is determined at any radial position, further
emissivity data from that polynomial order will not be used for
the remaining portions of the radial profile. In cases when all
the scanned polynomial orders return a negative emissivity
beyond certain radial positions, then no reliable confidence
intervals will be reported for the center of the plasma.
4.6. Adjacent smoothing option
The adjacent averaging dialog box (cf. Fig. 8) provides an
option for smoothing the lateral profile. When an integer, s, is
entered in the dialog box, the program performs a moving-
average smoothing operation on the lateral profile. The size of
the window for the moving average is equal to 2s +1. Each data
point in the lateral profile will then be smoothed by taking the
averages of s data points both before and after the original data
point. The maximum number of smoothing points that can be
used without distorting the resultant radial profile depends on
the shape and number of data points in the original lateral
profile, and on the portion of the radial profile of greatest
interest. Because there are numerous combinations, it is
difficult to provide a general guideline on choosing this
parameter. The best way to determine the maximum permis-
sible width of the moving-average window without distorting
the profile is by an in situ test.
For any arbitrary measured lateral profile, one can use the
base profile that is automatically generated by the program (see
Appendix C for a list and description of generated files) to
determine the maximum width of this smoothing window. The
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
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Relative Radial Position
Direct Abel-Inversion
0.3% Noise
1% Noise
3% Noise
Fig. 13. Confidence intervals calculated by the program for test profile #3 with 0.3%, 1% and 3% noise added to the lateral profile. Fitting-polynomial order was
scanned from 10 to 15. Abel-inversion was carried out by the Nestor Olsen algorithm with 100 data points.
G.C.-Y. Chan, G.M. Hieftje / Spectrochimica Acta Part B 60 (2005) 14861501 1497
base-profile is regarded as the noise-free lateral profile. By
applying different widths of the smoothing window and
observing the distortion in the resulting Abel-inverted profile,
one can easily determine the maximum width of the moving
average. Fig. 14a shows the Abel-inverted profiles from base-
profile #4 with 3% added noise with different widths of the
moving-average window. For this particular example, it is clear
that the maximum width of the moving-average window is
about 3. Fig. 14b shows the confidence intervals for the
calculated radial profile after applying 0, 3 and 6 point
adjacent-averaging to the original-lateral profile. The results
from the 3-point adjacent averaging still accurately represent
the profile whereas 6-point adjacent averaging distorts the
profile. Also, the determined confidence intervals then no
longer agree with the theoretical profile. Smoothing can
significantly reduce the span of the confidence intervals and
appropriately smoothed data still provide accurate results when
compared to the theoretical radial profile.
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
1.1
No Smooth
Smooth=1
Smooth=2
Smooth=3
Smooth=4
Smooth=5
Smooth=6
0.95 0.96 0.97 0.98 0.99 1.00
0.00
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.10
0.12

R
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Relative Radial Position
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20
0.16
0.18
0.20
0.22
0.24
0.26
0.28
0.30
R
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s
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Relative Radial Position
0.60 0.64 0.68 0.72 0.76 0.80
0.70
0.75
0.80
0.85
0.90
0.95
1.00
1.05
R
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Relative Radial Position
R
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Relative Radial Position
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
1.1
0.60 0.65 0.70 0.75 0.80
0.80
0.84
0.88
0.92
0.96
1.00
1.04
R
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Relative Radial Position
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Relative Radial Position
Theoretical
Smooth = 0
Smooth = 3
Smooth = 6
a
b
Fig. 14. Effect of adjacent averaging on (a) Abel-inverted radial profile from a noise-free base profile determined from test profile #4 with 3% added random noise,
and (b) the calculated Abel-inversion confidence intervals from the original noisy test profile.
G.C.-Y. Chan, G.M. Hieftje / Spectrochimica Acta Part B 60 (2005) 14861501 1498
5. Conclusion
A LabVIEW-based software program has been written to
carry out Abel inversion with estimation of confidence
intervals in the computed radial emissivity values. Software
functions include a user-selectable Abel-inversion algorithm
based on either the Nestor Olsen or the Hankel Fourier
method, automatic optimization of the polynomial order for
fitting the lateral profile, adjustment of the number of data
points in the lateral and radial profiles through interpolation,
and smoothing of the lateral profile by a moving-average
window.
Although the optimal set of parameters for finding the
confidence intervals depends on the lateral profile, it was found
that a single small set of trial parameters is sufficient for most
emission profiles commonly encountered in plasma spectro-
chemistry. With seven test profiles having different degrees of
radial uniformity, it was found that polynomial orders between
10 to 15 are sufficient to represent any smooth and continuous
lateral profile. This polynomial fitting serves effectively as a
noise filter; in it, a minimum of 100 data points is required in
the measured lateral profile. In addition, a minimum of 100
data points is required for Abel inversion using the Nestor
Olsen method. Moreover, it was found that 300 generated noise
profiles (iterations) are sufficient to estimate the confidence
intervals. With this set of parameters, it requires only a few
minutes to calculate the Abel-inversion confidence intervals on
desktop computers that are widely available at the time of
writing of this paper.
Acknowledgement
George Chan acknowledges The Croucher Foundation
for the award of a scholarship. This research was
supported by the US Department of Energy through Grant
DE-FG02-98ER14890.
Appendix A. Proof that the averaged absolute deviation
from the mean of a Gaussian distribution is numerically
equal to 0.79788s
For any continuous random variable X (i.e., possible values
of X are on a continuous scale), the mean (or expected value in
statistical terminology) for a set of experimental values x,
denoted as E[x] is equal to
E x
_
V
V
xIpdf x dx
where pdf(x) is the probability density distribution function of
the variable X.
Similarly, the expected value of any well-behaved function
g(x) is equal to [12]
E g x
_
V
V
g x Ipdf x dx
The probability density distribution function for a Gaussian
distribution, with mean l and standard deviation r, is equal
to
pdf x
1
r

2p
p exp
x l
2
2r
2
_ _
Therefore, the expected value of the absolute deviation from
the mean of a Gaussian distribution, E[)x l)], is equal to
E jx lj
_
V
V
jx ljI
1
r

2p
p exp
x l
2
2r
2
_ _
dx
2
_
V
0
x l I
1
r

2p
p exp
x l
2
2r
2
_ _
d x l
By introducing a variable w, such that w
xl
r

2
p
, and hence,
d x l r

2
p
dw
E jx lj 2
_
0
V
x l I
1
r

2p
p exp
x l
2
2r
2
_ _
d x l
2
_
0
V
r

2
p
wI
1
r

2p
p exp w
2
_
Ir

2
p
dw
r

2
p
_
_
0
V
2wIexp w
2
_
dw
r

2
p
_
_
0
V
exp w
2
_
d w
2
_ _
r

2
p
_
_
0
V
exp v dv
r

2
p
_
1
e
v
_ _
V
0
r

2
p
_
0:79788r
Appendix B. Hardware and software requirements
The program was developed using National Instruments
LabVIEW Version 6.1 and, therefore, LabVIEW Version 6.1
or above is required to run the program. The program has
been tested and shown to operate reliably on both LabVIEW
6.1 and LabVIEW 7.1. The computer configurations
employed for the test were: Pentium4 CPU at 2.80 GHz
with 1 GB RAM under Windows XP Professional 2002 with
Service Pack 1 installed. Users should refer to their LabVIEW
G.C.-Y. Chan, G.M. Hieftje / Spectrochimica Acta Part B 60 (2005) 14861501 1499
manual on the minimum computer resources required. This
program has not been tested under the minimum resources
requirement stated by LabVIEW nor under different computer
platforms or other Windows versions. While there is no
reason to believe that the program will not perform normally
in these environments, this must be done at the users
discretion.
Appendix C. Program Use
C.1. Format of input file
Users should create a new working directory (recom-
mended to be different from the directory where LabVIEW is
installed) for input lateral profiles and output files. The path
of this directory (e.g., c:\Abel
_
inversion\) should be typed
into the dialog box File Path in the program interface. Files
that contain lateral profiles to be Abel inverted should be
copied or moved to this directory. There are several
requirements for the format of input lateral profile data. First,
each lateral profile should be contained in an individual file
(i.e., each file must contain one and only one lateral profile).
Second, no x-axis (i.e., lateral) values are to be included in the
data file to be processed. The program will automatically
normalize the lateral value to 1 (i.e., the radial profile is
expressed in terms of the radius of the emission source, R).
The program does not require an identical number of data
points in each lateral profile; it will automatically detect the
number for each profile. Third, the delimiter for data in the
lateral-profile input file is a comma. Fourth, the file name
should be given the file extension .dat. Fifth, the data in the
lateral-profile input file should contain lateral data points in
order either from the center to the edge of the emission source
(i.e., from r =0 to r =R) or in the reverse direction. The
default format is from the center to the edge; for profiles that
start from the edge to the center, the toolbox x-axis from
edge to center must be checked in the program interface.
The program will then automatically convert the profile.
Regardless, the output of the program is oriented from the
center to the edge. Users must symmetrize and halve their
lateral profiles if entire lateral profiles (i.e., r from R to R)
are measured.
In this directory, users should also include a plain-text file
named Abel file list.txt to contain the total number and the
file name of individual lateral profile files to be Abel-inverted.
The default delimiter for this file is a carriage return. The first
line in the text profile should be a numeric entry that contains
the total number of lateral files to be inverted. For illustration,
the lateral profile is listed in a file named xxxxx.dat. The file
name can be of any length supported by the operating system
of the computer. The name of these lateral files (without file
extension, i.e., should be listed as xxxxx instead of
xxxxx.dat) should be listed, one in a line, starting from the
second line.
When all these files are ready, users can start running the
program as usual in LabVIEW by pressing the Run function
from the Operate toolbar (or Ctrl-R as short-cut key).
C.2. List of output files
The Abel-inverted confidence intervals from each lateral
profile will be outputted in the working directory with a file
name xxxxx
_
Abel-inverted.dat. This ASCII text file, with
appropriate header, contains the mean, the 95% confidence
intervals and the optimal polynomial order used for fitting the
lateral profile at each radial position. The total number of radial
positions can be set either in the dialog box Data Points in
Final Abel-Inverted Profile in the program interface (cf. Fig.
8) or set to be identical to the number of data points in the
original lateral profile. For the latter option, users should set
0 in the dialog box and the program will automatically set
the total number of data points identical to each lateral profile.
For each lateral profile, a new sub-directory with name
identical to the name of the lateral profile will be created in the
working directory for all intermediate data outputs (i.e., the
program will create a folder named xxxxx for the lateral file
xxxxx.dat). These output files are useful for tracing
purposes, for example, when users want to obtain information
on the base lateral profile, coefficients of the polynomial
fittings, or the exact noise profile added to each individual
iteration, etc. A list of these output files, with names in the
format of xxxxx
_
Polyzz
_
filename.ext, where xxxxx is the
original lateral file name, zz is the polynomial fitting order and
filename.ext is the output file name, is described below.
Abel inverted radial emissivity.txtcontains individual
Abel-inverted radial emission profiles for all iterations for
which the total iteration numbers are set in a dialog box in the
program interface.
Base profile.txtcontains the base lateral profile (obtained
by polynomial fitting) from the measured lateral profile. It is
this base profile to which generated random noise is
subsequently added.
Evolution of CL at position10(25/50/90).txt(available
only when the dialog box Calculate evolution profile is
checked in the program interface) contains how the mean and
confidence intervals evolve with iteration cycles at radial
position 10% (or 25%/50%/90%, etc.) of radius, R.
Lateral profile with added noise.txtcontains all individual
iteration profiles obtained by adding generated random noise to
the base profile.
Polynomial fit parameters.txtcontains the coefficients of
polynomial fitting (listed in order of constant term, first order
term, etc., residue of fitting) for every iteration profile.
Polynomial fitted lateral profile.txtcontains all individual
iteration profiles after the polynomial fit and can be regarded as
the iteration profile generated after noise filtering by the
polynomial fitting process. It is this lateral profile (or those
interpolated if different numbers of data points are set in the
final Abel-inverted profile dialog box) on which the Abel
inversion is based.
Radial emissivity statistics.txtcontains 95% confidence
limits, mean, maximum, minimum, median and standard
deviation of the emissivity at different radial positions.
Smoothed lateral profile.txtcontains all individual lateral
iteration profiles smoothed by adjacent averaging. If 0 is set
G.C.-Y. Chan, G.M. Hieftje / Spectrochimica Acta Part B 60 (2005) 14861501 1500
in the adjacent-averaging dialog box in the program interface,
the profiles will be identical to those in lateral profile with
added noise.txt.
Appendix D. Sample Data Files
Sample radial and lateral emission data files of the seven test
profiles are also included in the accompanying diskette. These
sample files are named with the format radial-P0a-b00.dat
and lateral-P0a-b00.dat for theoretical radial and lateral
profiles, respectively. The parameter a ranges from 1 to 7
and represents the Profile Number; b is either 1 or 3 and
represents the number of data points in the profile (100 or 300).
Appendix E. Copyright
The programs and the data files are copyrighted by the
authors. Readers of Spectrochimica Acta Electronica are
permitted by the Publisher Elsevier Science B.V., to copy the
material for their own private, non-commercial use, and to run
the program according to the instructions provided by the
authors. No charge for any copies may be requested, neither
may the program or any modified version of it be sold or used
for commercial purposes. Those who wish to use the program
and data files in a commercial environment should contact the
corresponding author at the address given on the hardcopy
paper. Programs for which the source code is made available by
the authors may be freely modified by the readers. However, if
a modified version is brought into the public domain, the
original authors and the journal reference should be stated
clearly in all subsequent use and dissemination.
Appendix F. Disclaimer
Neither the authors nor the Publisher warrant that the
program is free from defects, that it operates as designed, or
that the documentation is accurate. Neither the authors nor the
Publisher are liable for any damage of whatever kind sustained
through downloading and/or using the programs and the data
files. By downloading and/or using the programs, the reader of
Spectrochimica Acta Electronica, acting as a user of an
electronic publication therein, agrees to the above terms and
conditions.
Appendix G. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be
found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.sab.2005.08.016.
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