ELECTRON ACCELERATION AND EXCITATION PROCESSES IN THE VICINITY OF A MERCURY DISCHARGE CONSTRICTION

Abstract

In the present paper axial distributions of plasma and floating potentials, electron and iondensities and EEDF have been measured in the DL region of a Hg discharge constriction. An attempt hasbeen made for the resolution of opposing charged layer structures in DL. Excitation processes in theconstriction region are studied. Using the linearization method for the nonstationary balance equationssystem and choosing appropriate discharge conditions, the step excitation rate by the electron impact for6 3 P 2 →7 1 S 0 transition in Hg is determined.