Dissociation of fluorine by electron impact

Abstract
Using a previously developed F‐atom diagnostic technique, the efficiency of F2 dissociation by an electron beam or an electron‐beam‐sustained discharge was systematically studied. By monitoring the transient concentration of ions generated during the electron‐beam‐sustained discharge, we have determined the F+F+2 ion‐ion recombination and F2 dissociative attachment rate constants at various E/P conditions. The dissociative attachment rate constant of F2 at an average electron energy of 1 eV was found to be about (2.3±0.3) ×10−9 cm3/molecule sec−1 and increased with decreasing electron energy. The F+F+2→3F recombination rate constant at an E/P of 18 kV/cm/atm was found to be about (1.5±0.2) ×10−8 cm3/molecule sec−1 and also increases with decreasing E/P values. The sustained‐discharge enhancement of F‐atom production from these experiments is F2 is small, ∼1.7.

This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit: