EXCITATION BY ELECTRONS AND FAST NEUTRALS IN NITROGEN DISCHARGES AT VERY HIGH-ELECTRIC-FIELD TO GAS NUMBER DENSITY RATIOS

A Monte Carlo code for simulation of electron, ion and fast neutral tr ansport was developed to model the spatial distribution of excitation under nonequilibrium conditions at very high electric field to gas num ber density ratios (E/N) and low currents. The code includes the most detailed representation of electron scattering and transport including the reflection and multiplication at the anode and simulation of ion and fast neutral transport for realistic geometry of the experiments o f B. M. Jelenkovic and A. V. Phelps [Phys. Rev. A 36, 5310 (1987)] and V. T. Gylys, B. M. Jelenkovid, and A. V. Phelps [J. Appl. Phys. 65, 3 369 (1989)]. A good agreement between the simulations and experimental data was achieved by using reasonable data for scattering cross secti ons from the literature. Simulations confirm the model proposed by A. V. Phelps, B. M. Jelenkovid and L. C. Pitchford [Phys. Rev. A 36, 5327 (1987)] of transport and excitation kinetics at very high E/N where f ast neutral excitation is the dominant process for second positive (2( +)) band of nitrogen. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.