Emission of cyan upon excitation of nitrogen, air, and N2-CH4 mixture by discharge pulses in an inhomogeneous electric field

Abstract

We have studied spectral and amplitude-time characteristics of the emission by nitrogen, air, and the N2-CH4 mixture upon excitation by nanosecond and microsecond high-voltage discharge pulses in an inhomogeneous electric field in the pressure range of 0.01–3 atm. In the pulsed and pulse-periodic discharge regimes, we have observed emission bands of the violet system of cyan, the transition B2Σ+ → X2Σ+, which were comparable in intensity with bands of the (2+) system of nitrogen. We show that, in the pulsed regime, the highest intensity of the violet system of cyan is observed in the N2-CH4 mixture. We show that, in the pulse-periodic discharge in nitrogen with a small amount of a carbon-containing admixture, upon contracting the discharge, the efficiencies of formation and emission of the violet system of cyan considerably increase. We confirm that admixtures of oxygen to nitrogen lead to suppression of the emission of the violet system of cyan molecules.