In this work, nanosecond Two-photon Absorption Laser Induced Fluorescence (TALIF) is used to probe the absolute density of nitrogen atoms in a plasma generated using a micro-hollow cathode discharge (MHCD). The MHCD is operated in the normal regime and the plasma is ignited in an Ar/N 2 gas mixture. First, we study a MHCD configuration having the same pressure (50 mbar) on both sides of the electrodes. A good agreement is found between the density of N atoms measured using TALIF in this work, and previous measurements using vacuum ultraviolet Fourier transform absorption spectroscopy. Then, we introduce a pressure differential between the two electrodes of the MHCD, creating a plasma jet. The influence of the discharge current, the percentage of N 2 in the gas mixture and pressures on both sides of the MHCD is studied. The current has a small impact on the N-atoms density. Furthermore, an optimal N-atom density is found at around 95% of N 2 in the discharge. Finally, we demonstrate that the pressure has a different impact depending on the side of the MHCD: the density of N-atoms is much more sensitive to the change of the pressure in the low pressure side when compared to the pressure change in the high pressure side. This could be due to several competing phenomena: gas residence time in the cathodic region, recirculation or recombination of the N-atoms at the wall. This study contributes to the optimization of MHCD as an efficient N-atom source for material deposition applications.