Generation of vibrationally excited H2 molecules by H+2 wall collisions

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Abstract
The H+ 2 ions from the volume of a hydrogen discharge will strike the discharge chamber walls with a kinetic energy equivalent to the plasma potential. A three‐step process is described in which the H+ 2 ions are neutralized in a two‐stage Auger process followed by a third stage wall relaxation collision, with the net result that the incident ions are converted to ground state molecules having a broad vibrational excitation spectrum. For kinetic energies ranging from a few electron volts up to twenty electron volts a substantial fraction, ≂2/3, of these ions will reflect as molecules, and of this population a fraction as large as twenty percent will have vibrational excitation v″≥6. This large vibrational population will provide a contribution to the total excited level distribution that is comparable to the E‐V process. Implications for negative ion generation in an optimized tandem configuration are discussed.

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