Theoretical study of pulsed microwave discharge in nitrogen

Abstract

A pulsed microwave discharge burning in pure nitrogen was studied theoretically. The time-dependent Boltzmann equation for electrons was solved numerically in multi-term approximation. It was assumed that the discharge was ignited by a 100 kW microwave (f = 9.4 GHz) pulses with 2.5 µs duration; the repetition frequency was 400 Hz. It was shown that the electron distribution function approaches very quickly the steady state distribution function after a change of the amplitude of electric field intensity. The steady state time averaged values of electron mean energy, diffusion and rate coefficients and drift velocity were calculated for different values of electric field intensity. With these values the actual values of electric field intensity from a previous experiment were determined from the measured time dependence of electron concentration. The calculated values were compared with previous experimental results.