Electron energy distribution function in Hehyphen;CO radiohyphen;frequency plasmas: The role of vibrational and electronic superelastic collisions

摘要

The role of vibrational and electronic superelastic collisions in collisionhyphen;dominated Hehyphen;CO rf bulk plasmas has been studied by solving the timehyphen;dependent Boltzmann equation in the presence of different concentrations of vibrational lsqb;CO(v=1)rsqb; and electronic lsqb;CO(a3Pgr;),He(3S)rsqb; states. The results, which have been obtained for a field frequency ohgr; of pgr; 107sminus;1thinsp;Torrminus;1, show that the presence of excited states is such to markedly enlarge at medium electron energies and to strongly enhance at high energies the electron energy distribution function with large consequences on the related macroscopic quantities of the electrons, particularly on the mean collision frequencies of high threshold inelastic collision processes.