| Numéro |
J. Phys. Colloques
Volume 40, Numéro C7, Juillet 1979
XIVe Conférence Internationale sur les Phénomènes d'Ionisation dans les Gaz / XIVth International Conference on Phenomena in Ionized Gases
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| Page(s) | C7-49 - C7-50 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/jphyscol:1979724 | |
J. Phys. Colloques 40 (1979) C7-49-C7-50
DOI: 10.1051/jphyscol:1979724
EXCITATION TEMPERATURE OF A RAPIDLY VARYING PLASMA
M. Numano1 et H. Onishi21 College of Engineering, University of Osaka Prefecture, Sakai, Japan.
2 Mitsubishi Atomic Power Industries, Inc., Tokyo, Japan.
Abstract
As is well-known, the excitation temperature, which is determined from the population distribution of excited atoms in a plasma, is not always equal to the electron temperature related to the thermal motion of electrons. The discrepancy between these two temperatures is caused by various effects /1, 2, 3/. Recently, it was reported that, in an expanding jet of plasma, the electron density decreases quite rapidly along the flow and that the excitation temperature differs markedly from the electron temperature /4/. When the variation of the electron density is too rapid for the population of the excited atoms to follow, the plasma may not remain in thermal equilibrium, resulting in the difference of the excitation temperature from the electron temperature.