Criteria for partial LTE in an argon thermal discharge at atmospheric pressure; validity of the spectroscopically measured electronic temperature

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Abstract
A collisional-radiative (C-R) model is used to obtain the population number densities of the excited levels of neutral and singly charged ions in argon for 6000Kce th for the electronic density, corresponding to a Saha equilibrium for the lower-lying excited levels, is determined for each Te value. A simplified model allows evaluation of the influence of each process on the density of the set of metastable and pseudo-metastable atomic excited levels of the 3p5 4s electronic configuration. For the different zones of the discharge, the Saha and Boltzmann temperatures, which can be experimentally obtained, are compared to the electronic temperature Tc.