Some transport properties in plasmas containing argon and fluorine

Abstract

In this paper some results of numerical evaluation of transport coefficients in plasmas in the mixtures of argon and fluorine are presented. These transport characteristics are given in the function of the temperature for low pressures ranging from 0,1 kPa to 1,0 kPa and for low temperatures between 500 K and 5 000 K in argon plasmas with 20% and 30% of the fluorine added. It is assumed that the system is kept under constant pressure and that a corresponding state of local thermodynamical equilibrium (LTE) is attained in it. The equilibrium plasma composition, necessary for the evaluations, was determined on the ground of the Saha equations for ionization processes and the law of mass action for the thermal dissociation of F2, combined with the charge conservation relation and the assumption that the pressure remained constant in the course of temperature variations. The ionization energy lowering, required in conjunction with the Saha equations, was obtained with the aid of a modified expression for the plasma Debye radius proposed previously. A previously derived expression for the modified Debye radius, offering the possibility to treat the plasmas considered as weakly non-ideal in the whole temperature range, is used. The cut-off at the Landau length rather than of the smallest of ionic radii is introduced. This alteration in the evaluation procedure brings different considerable changes in the final numerical results for the all relevant quantities.