The Influence of Deviations from the Maxwellian Electron Distribution on the Population densities in a low Temperature Monatomic Plasma

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Abstract
A selfconsistent solution with respect to both free and bound electron energy states is presented for a low temperature monatomic plasma. The deviations from a Maxwellian electron distribution under the action of unbalanced resonance transitions of the plasma atoms are incorporated in analytical form using a recursion formula, which links the high energy tail of the electron distribution function to its low energy part. The unbalance of the resonance level may be due to diffusion processes and/or radiation escape, which reflect the influence of the plasma boundaries. The population densities of the bound electron energy states are numerically determined by an iteration procedure. The calculations were performed for a cesium plasma both without and with consideration of resonance level diffusion and ambipolar diffusion. As is to be expected, the effect of a disturbance of the electron distribution on the population densities increases with decreasing electron density and increasing electron temperature.

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