EMISSION-SPECTRA OF ATOMIC-HYDROGEN IN A NONEQUILIBRIUM GAS-DISCHARGEPLASMA

A kinetic model of the excited states of hydrogen atoms in nonequilibr ium gas discharges is briefly described. In contrast to the models des cribed previously in the literature, our model takes into account inel astic interactions between excited hydrogen atoms and heavy plasma par ticles. An analysis of the mechanisms for forming the distribution fun ction of hydrogen atoms over excited states in a recombining hydrogen plasma and a comparison between our calculations and the experimental data obtained at the Technical University of Eindhoven show that the h eavy plasma component plays the dominant role in the processes of popu lating the higher electronic levels of hydrogen atoms and establishing , in the range of large quantum numbers n, a temperature of the distri bution function that is close to the gas temperature.