Primary and Afterglow Emission from Lowhyphen;Temperature Gaseous Nitrogen Excited by Fast Electrons

摘要

Measurements were made of the primary and afterglow emission decay times of some of the emitting species in an expanded nitrogen flow when excited by a 10hyphen;kV electron beam. Both the first negative system of N2+and the second positive system of N2were observed in the afterglow to persist for about 2times;10minus;6sec. The origin of the afterglow is explained by the possible transfer of energy from groundhyphen;state N2+ions and secondary electrons to ground state N2molecules. This is substantiated by observations of the departure from a Boltzmann distribution of the rotational energies in the N2molecules.