Evolution of nitrogen atom density in the nitrogen post-discharge with oxygen admixture

摘要

It is well known that the dissociation degree of nitrogen gas can be substantially increased if asmall amount of oxygen is added upstream the active discharge. Surprisingly, a very similarphenomenon is observed even for oxygen added to the nitrogen late post-discharge. This increaseis such well pronounced and fast that it can not be explained only by the decrease of the wallrecombination. The major role of some homogeneous reactions, probably involving the energeticparticles, is therefore clear. In this paper, we show the experimental results obtained for theoxygen admixture to the pure nitrogen afterglow and we discuss probable reaction paths that canlead to the increase of nitrogen dissociation when a small amount of oxygen is added into the purenitrogen post-discharge.