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Time Resolved Electron Number Density Measurements in Low Temperature Afterglow Plasma

Publication at Faculty of Mathematics and Physics |
2020

Abstract

The Cryogenic Stationary Afterglow apparatus with a continuous wave Cavity Ring-Down absorption Spectrometer (Cryo-SA-CRDS) was used to study time evolution of the number density of H3+ ions in the afterglow plasma. We used the microwave (MW) discharge in He/Ar/H2 gas mixture to form H3+ ions in this experiment.

The main aim was to compare the results from the new time resolved electron number density measurement system with the concurrently measured H3+ ion number density. Aided by the model of chemical kinetics, the experiments were performed at different number densities of buffer gas and reactant gases to follow the transition from H3+ dominated plasma to plasma containing both H3+ and H5+ ions.