Vibrational distribution of nitrogen molecules in the C3Πu state in a near-surface microwave plasma in nitrogen at pressures of 1–5 Torr

Abstract

The radiation of the second positive nitrogen system has been used to study the spatial dependence of the vibrational distribution of nitrogen molecules in the C3Πu state in the near-surface plasma layer of an electrode microwave discharge in nitrogen at pressures of 1–5 Torr. It has been shown that the vibrational distribution changes at a scale of 100 μm. It has been concluded that this state is populated owing to the electron impact from the ground state. The possibility of using the local approximation for the electron energy distribution function to explain the experimental results has been analyzed.