Creation of highly excited H[sub 2] molecules in a hydrogen flux penetrative through cesium-hydrogen discharge

Abstract

There is a considerable interest in the creation of vibrationally excited H2 molecules because of their application to H− volume-plasma sources, plasma chemistry etc. It was shown previously that a low-voltage discharge in Cs-H2 mixture might be used as an effective source of vibrationally excited H2 molecules. In the present communication, it is shown that vibrational distribution function (VDF) of H2 molecules may be very significantly improved if vibrational excitation occurs in a moving flux of H2 molecules penetrative through the discharge.The following theoretical model is considered. Hydrogen flux flows in a flat channel and passes through two sections one after another. The first section (I) is a discharge one, where low-voltage Cs-H2 discharge occurs and vibrationally excited H2 molecules are created. In the next section (II), the excited hydrogen flows in a plane channel, which walls are unheated. Because of a large value of the mean vibrational energy of H2 molecule, very significant intensific...