Atomic Charge-Changing Processes in Plasmas

Abstract

Properties of various kinds of plasmas are determined by atomic radiation and collision processes occurring between plasma particles, therefore, the detailed knowledge of the effective cross sections and rate coefficients for these processes is highly required. In this work, charge-changing processes, mainly for heavy-particle collisions, including impurity ions, are considered using available computer codes, and the background physics is discussed. Besides general features, the role of metastable states of plasma atoms and ions, which are often observed in most of plasmas and play a key role in plasma formation, is considered. The non-linear effects observed for heavy particle collisions, such as the density effect and multiple-electron ionization, are also considered. In addition, the isotope effects are briefly discussed related with electron capture in collisions of alpha particles with hydrogen and its isotopes (D and T). c