Abstract
The present Special issue collects original and review articles that were a matter of discussion at the workshop `All about metastables' organised as a subsection of the XVth ESCAMPIG conference held in Miskol-Lillafured in Hungary on 26-30 August 2000.The Europhysics Sectional Conference on Atomic and Molecular Physics of Ionised Gases (ESCAMPIG) is an important biennial meeting for scientists involved in fundamental and applied sciences based on ionised gases. The conference is organised under the sponsorship of the European Physical Society. The ESCAMPIG is a meeting rich with discussion opportunities. Besides lectures, hot topics and poster sessions, it is a custom of the ESCAMPIG to arrange during the meeting short workshops or round tables focused on topics of large scientific impact on this community. Such discussions are mainly based on the participation of scientists attending the conference.The International Scientific Committee of XVth ESCAMPIG envisaged a renewed interest in the topics concerning long-lived species, and particularly those concerning the atoms and molecules in electronically excited metastable states (metastable species). The importance of such species is largely known in different ionised gas environments like laboratory gas-discharges for lamps, lasers and panel display technologies, as well as in natural environments like the upper atmosphere. The energy transfers operated by such species are of primary importance in many kinds of afterglows containing nitrogen, oxygen and noble gases. Actually, most of the details (density temperature or internal state distributions, etc.) of long-lived species can be detected by many extremely sensitive techniques, most of them based on lasers. This knowledge therefore offers the possibility of approaching with more confidence the microscopic kinetic modelling of discharge and post-discharge systems containing long-lived species.Most of the matter discussed at the workshop `All about metastables' is addressed by the articles in this special issue. The issue focuses on some recent achievements in the topics concerning the diagnostics and modelling of elementary kinetics and energy transfers of electronically excited metastables and ground state atoms and vibrationally excited molecules in N2, O2, N2-O2 and N2-H2O systems. It also highlights the role of long-lived species in high-pressure discharge and in supersonic flow generated by N2 plasma jets as well as in oxygen-iodine lasers. Two reviews will help the reader to focus on the main aspects of the gas phase and the gas-surface kinetics modelling of the long-lived species in the glow and afterglow conditions.Finally, despite the appealing title, the workshop highlighted a restricted number of topics on metastables and more generally long-lived species.The issue of noble-gas metastables was not touched upon. For this reason we think the reader will appreciate also finding in this special issue two regular articles on topics not covered by the workshop. We hope this special issue contributes to an overview of the many links of the metastable issue in the physics and chemistry of partially ionised gases.Dr S De Benedictis, Guest EditorCentro di Studio per la Chimica dei Plasma CNR, c/o Dipartimento di Chimica Universita' di Bari, 4, Via Orabona, 70126 Bari, ItalyJune 2001
Published Version
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