Coagulation in a low-temperature plasma

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Abstract
We have treated coagulation of microparticles of characteristic sizes cm in a low-temperature plasma at a gas pressure of the order of 1 Torr. The distribution function of the particles' charge, which is found before, allows one to calculate the rate of coagulation of two particles with given sizes. For the distribution function of the particles' sizes the non-stationary kinetic equation is solved numerically. The analytical formulae for the mean charge of particles, the fraction of the neutral particles that are charged and the time-dependence of the mean radius of the particles are deduced in this paper and comparison of the analytical and computed results is performed. It is shown also that the experimental data concerning the coagulation of silicon particles in an argon plasma coincide qualitatively with calculated values.