Production of the excited Ne(2p ⁵ 3p) atoms by dissociative recombination in the afterglow of high frequency neon discharge

Abstract

Experimental results are presented of the measurements of the population of the Ne(2p ⁵ 3p) atoms from the time dependences of the relative intensities of the spectral lines corresponding to 3s -3p transitions in the afterglow period of a high frequency neon glow discharge at pressures from 266 Pa to 4 kPa. The partial recombination coefficients were determined from these measurements as a function of gas pressure and they are compared with measurements of other authors. It is shown that at low gas pressures the Ne(2p ⁵ 3p) atoms are also populated only in the dissociative recombination in spite of the fact that the dominant loss process of charged particles is the ambipolar diffusion.