Neutron star radiation from pulsars is thought to be primarily emitted from regions near their magnetic poles. If the magnetic poles do not coincide with the rotational axis of the neutron star, the emission beam will sweep the sky, and when seen from a distance, if the observer is somewhere in the path of the beam, it will appear as pulses of radiation coming from a fixed point in space (the so-called "lighthouse effect"). The fastest-spinning neutron star known is PSR J1748-2446ad, rotating at a rate of 716 times a second or 43,000 revolutions per minute, giving a linear speed at the
Plasma diagnostics modification of the laser-induced fluorescence technique. In this approach the upper level is excited by absorbing two photons and registering the resulting emission from the excited state. The advantage of this approach is that the registered light from the fluorescence is with a different wavelength from the exciting laser beam, which leads to improved signal to noise ratio. The optical diagnostics above measure line radiation from atoms. Alternatively, the effects of free charges on electromagnetic radiation can be used as a diagnostic. In magnetized plasmas, electrons will gyrate around magnetic field lines and emit cyclotron radiation. The frequency of the