Hydrogen vibrational population distributions and negative ion concentrations in a medium density hydrogen discharge

Abstract

The vibrational population distribution for hydrogen molecules in a hydrogen discharge has been calculated taking into account electron collisional excitation, molecule-molecule, and wall collisional de-excitation processes. Electronic excitation processes include vibrational excitation by 1 eV thermal electrons acting through the intermediary of the negative ion resonances, and vibrational excitation caused by the radiative decay of higher singlet electronic states excited by a small population of 60 eV electrons in the discharge. The molecules are de-excited by molecular collisions transferring vibrational energy into translational energy, and by wall collisions. The distributions exhibit a plateau, or hump, in the central portion of the spectrum. The relative concentration of negative ions is calculated assuming dissociative attachment of the low temperature electrons to vibrationally excited, non-rotating molecules. The ratio of negative ions to electrons in the discharge is calculated to be of order 1% if the vibrational excitation survives no more than one wall collision, and of order 10% if the excitation survives ten collisions. The possibility is considered that the higher concentrations can be achieved with few wall collisions provided dissociative attachment occurs to highly rotating molecules.