Glow discharge in rare-gas and metal vapour mixture

Conclusion

The results are summarized in the form of graphs which illustrate the dependence of the rate coefficients on three parameters: E/N (electric field over total neutral concentration) x_e (ionization degree) and n₁ (relative concentration of cadmium). In such a way, we have tried to point out the main feature of the collisional rates under the conditions of steady-state, weakly ionized plasma. The use of the maxwellian distribution function for an evaluation of the rate coefficients would yield the results which differ substantially from ours. This concerns, particularly, the excitations from the ground state of atom efficacy of which depends on the high energy distribution tail. Since the true distribution function from Ref. [1] was employed in our calculations, it can be inferred that the main source of the inaccuracy in the rate coefficients is essentially given by the cross-sections used. It is believed that the present results can serve for a more quantitative understanding or for obtaining insight into the microscopic phenomena occurring in the positive column of the discharge.