EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL-STUDY OF EMISSION FROM WEAKLY IONIZED AIR PLASMA GENERATED BY AN ELECTRON-BEAM

The emission from a plasma generated by a high-energy electron beam in air was subjected to a comprehensive study, involving experimental te st bed measurements, with specially designed equipment, and theoretica l calculations of the degradation spectrum of the electron beam, the k inetics of emitting levels, and the spectral distribution of emission. The comparison of theory and experiment confirmed the validity of the theoretical model adopted. The experiments were performed in two setu ps: a small vacuum chamber, with pressure p = 17.3 - 33 Pa (0.13 - 0.2 5 ton) and electron beam power W = 50 - 300 W, and a large vacuum cham ber with p less than or equal to 10 kPa (75 ton), and W less than or e qual to 40 kW.