Diffusive decay of a low-pressure electronegative plasma

The diffusion decay of a pulsed low-pressure discharge plasma in an electro negative gas is theoretically studied assuming the absence of plasmachemica l processes. According to the previously established mechanisms, evolution of the plasma parameters involves two stages in which the variation of both density and energy of electrons is controlled by the transport processes. In the first stage, the flux of negative ions to the wall is absent and the electron density decays sharply with time, whereby almost all electrons es cape within a finite time from the discharge volume where an ion-ion (elect ron-free) plasma is formed. In the second stage, this plasma decays by an i on-ion ambipolar diffusion mechanism. (C) 2001 MAIK "Nauka/ Interperiodica" .