KINETIC PROCESSES IN HIGHLY-IONIZED NONEQUILIBRIUM HYDROGEN PLASMA

The work represents a ramified kinetic scheme of plasma chemical proce sses in a non-equilibrium hydrogen plasma that allows one to model in detail the dynamics of an electric discharge in a molecular gas. The s cheme describes processes of interaction of electrons with heavy parti cles (including a vast set of processes of electronic-vibrational exci tation of hydrogen molecules by electron impact), vibrational kinetics of the Hp molecules and processes with participation of hydrogen atom s, positive and negative ions. The possibility of reaching a high leve l of vibrational non-equilibrium of the molecular component of the gas under conditions characterized by high values of gas temperature and concentration of atomic hydrogen (which is an effective quencher of th e vibrational levels of the H-2(X) particles) is demonstrated by the e xample of the pulsed high-current low-pressure discharge. Such a possi bility is conditioned by the high efficiency of the processes of vibra tional excitation of hydrogen molecules via singlet electronic terms. It is also shown that quick gas heating during the discharge at suffic iently high electron energy (T-e greater than or equal to 2 eV) is sub stantially governed by the processes of dissociative excitation of ele ctronic states of the hydrogen molecules by direct electron impact.