Abstract
When a plasma is sustained in the open air, nitrogen will diffuse into the plasma. Especially for plasmas sustained by the `Torche à Injection Axiale' (TIA) this appears to be the case, since this turbulent jet draws gases from the surroundings. In the argon plasma the entrained nitrogen is probably converted into (via charge transfer with argon ions), which is consequently destroyed by dissociative recombination (DR). This mechanism affects the plasma in two ways: (1) it offers an important loss channel for the free electrons and (2) the gas is heated by the kinetic energy of the nitrogen atoms produced in the DR reaction.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 49-57 |
Journal | Plasma Sources Science and Technology |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1999 |