Electron Energy Distribution Functions of Hydrogen: The Effect of Superelastic Vibrational Collisions and of the Dissociation Process

Abstract

Abstract Electron energy distribution functions (EDF) of molecular H2 have been calculated by numerically solving the Boltzmann equation including all the inelastic processes with the addition of superelastic vibrational collisions and of the hydrogen atoms coming from the dissociation process. The population densities of the vibrational levels have been obtained both by assuming a Boltz-mann population at a vibrational temperature different from the translational one and by solving a system of vibrational master equations coupled to the Boltzmann equation. The results, which have been compared with those corresponding to a vibrationally cold molecular gas, show that the inclusion of superelastic collisions and of the parent atoms affects the EDF tails without strongly modifying the EDF bulk. As a consequence the quantities affected by the EDF bulk, such as average and characteristic energies, drift velocity, 0-1 vibrational excitation rate are not too much affected by the inclusion of superelastic vibrational collisions and of parent atoms, while a strong influence is observed on the dissociation and ionization rate coefficients which depend on the EDF tail. Calculated dissociation rates, obtained by EDF's which take into account both the presence of vibrationally excited molecules and hydrogen atoms, are in satisfactory agreement with experimental results.