Relaxation of electronic excitations in ions in cold krypton plasma

Abstract

Reaction rate constants have been calculated for electronic transitions in ions and for their decay as induced by collisions with krypton atoms and/or spontaneous radiation processes. The rate constants have then been used in a series of modelings of electronic relaxation in the ions in cold krypton plasmas with the main focus on relaxation times and final states. It has been shown that the collision-induced (non-radiative) relaxation is much faster than the radiative one and completely dominates with typical relaxation times ranging between nanoseconds and microseconds. The relaxation always ends up in the electronic ground state, high electronic excitations survive for longer times than lower excitations due to spin–orbit coupling effects.