Kinetics of excitation of N2(A3Σu+, vA), N2(C3Πu, vC), and N2(B3Πg, vB) in nitrogen discharge plasmas as studied by means of emission spectroscopy and computer simulation

Using the methods of emission spectroscopy and computer simulation, the kinetics of excitation of vibrational distribution functions (VDFs) for the A(3)Sigma(+)(u) (V(A) = 0-13), B(3)Pi (g) (V(B) = 0-17), and C(3)Pi(u) (V(C) = 0-4) electronic states of the nitrogen molecule in nitrogen of dc glow-discharge and electrode or resonant-cavity MW discharge plasmas was studied. The VDFs in the states A(3)Sigma(+)(u) (v(A) = 0-13), B(3)Pi (g) (v(B) = 0-17), and C(3)Pi (u) (v(C) = 0-4) of the nitrogen molecule differ from the Boltzmann distribution. The main processes that generate these distributions were determined. It was shown that the pattern of the calculated VDFs depends on experimental conditions, level rate coefficients and, what is of particular importance, on the cross sections of elementary processes used in the model.