Role of excited electronic states in the kinetics of electrons in nitrogen post-discharges

Abstract

Kinetics of electrons coupled to those of various molecular nitrogen excited electronic states in post-discharges is studied. Results show that the high-energy ()5 eV) part of the electron energy distribution is strongly enhanced by electronic superelastic collisions, and contributions from various vibronic states appear as peaks at their respective thresholds. The relaxation in the post-discharge regime depends critically on the degree of excitation of the various vibronic states in the active discharge. It is shown that energy pooling reactions play a dominant role in determining the vibrational distributions of A 3 Sigma +u, B 3 Pi g and C 3 Pi u states.