Effect of small alkaline additives on recombination processes in the positive column of a glowing nitrogen discharge

The effect of a small sodium additive on the electron-ion recombination in a decaying nitrogen plasma is studied. Time variations in the plasma conduc tivity during plasma decay are measured experimentally and used to calculat e the corresponding time dependences of the electron density for various co ncentrations of the sodium admixture. The results obtained demonstrate that it is possible to decrease the rate of charged-particle loss by doping a s mall alkaline admixture to nitrogen. It is shown that the observed increase in the Lifetime of charged particles is related to the fact that, in a nit rogen-alkaline plasma, three-body recombination plays a significant role in charged-particle loss, whereas, in a pure nitrogen plasma, the main mechan ism for charged-particle loss is dissociative (two-particle) recombination.