Recombination rates and non-equilibrium electrical conductivity in a seeded plasma

Abstract

Experimentally determined values of electrical conductivity and electron temperature have been measured in a non-equilibrium seeded plasma. These results are in good agreement over a wide range of parameters with values calculated from a two-temperature model of the plasma. There is no doubt that the two-temperature model is valid over a wide range of gas temperatures, seed concentrations, and current densities for the argon-potassium and helium-potassium plasmas. However, the model does not give an accurate description of the plasma when the current density is below about 0.4 amp/cm^2; in this range the omission of the influence of atom-atom excitation and the influence of non-equilibrium excited state populations may explain the discrepancy between experiment and theory. In addition, the electron-elecron-ion collisional recombination rate for potassium has been measured in the argon-potassium system. The range of electron temperatures investigated was between 1900° K to 3000° K with electron densities between 3X10^(13) and 4x10^(14)/cm^3. The measured values show a scatter of 60 per cent about theoretical values calculated from present recombination-rate theory employing the Gryzinski classical collision cross sections.