MODELING OF CONCENTRATION DISTRIBUTIONS OF ACTIVE SPECIES DURING PLASMA NITRIDING

The reactivity of nitrogen depends on the excitation of the nitrogen m olecules. The vibrational energy of the neutral species in the fundame ntal electronic state depends on the energy transfer during collisions . A self consistent modal has been developed to calculate the isoconce ntration regions of neutral and excited species within the positive co lumn of a weakly ionized plasma. The model considers the collisions be tween electrons and nitrogen molecules (e-v) and between molecules (v- v) as the elicitation mechanisms, and assumes amass balance for the ge neration and extinction of species within thr reactor. In this work, t he effect of the e-v mechanism is evaluated with respect to the combin ed effect of the (e-v and v-v) mechanisms based on the results for the excitation and distribution of species obtained with the model.