Abstract

In this paper, the mechanism of air ionization by a single nanosecond discharge under atmospheric conditions is studied by numerical simulations. The plasma kinetics is solved with ZDPlasKin and the electron energy distribution function is calculated with BOLSIG+. The originality of the model is to consider not only the excited electronic states of N2, but also the excited electronic states of O and N. These states are shown to have a primary importance in the ionization of the plasma for ne > 10 17 cm-3. It is shown that a non-equilibrium plasma (Te > Tgas) at ne = 10 17 cm-3 can reach full ionization and thermalization (Te = Tgas ≈ 3 eV, ne ≈ 10 19 cm-3) in less than half a nanosecond under a field usually encountered in nanosecond discharges.

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