Partition of Recombination Energy in the Decaying Rare-Gas Plasmas

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Abstract
In the collisional-radiative electron-ion recombination regime, the energy liberated from each recombination is partly carried away by a third colliding free electron and partly transformed into radiation. The partition of the energy among the electrons and radiation is obtained by comparing the probability of electron collisional de-excitation at different atomic-energy states, calculated by using Gryziński's formulation, and the spontaneous transition probability of bound electrons to all lower states evaluated by using the sum rule of line strength and the central-field approximation. A recombination-dominated decaying plasma is produced by a discharge tube energized with a capacitor bank. After cessation of the discharge current, the electron density, electron temperature, and atom temperature are measured by using both microwave and electrostatic probes, the spectral-line ratio method, and a fast-rise-time resistance thermometer, respectively. The partition of the recombination energy under different conditions for He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe gases is determined from a solution of the electron-energy equation. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions. The oscillator strengths of the resonance lines for the five rare gases are also presented.

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