RATE OF INELASTIC ELECTRON PROCESSES IN A WEAKLY IONIZED PLASMA IN A NONSTATIONARY ELECTRIC-FIELD

An approach is developed for calculating the rates of inelastic electron processes in a weakly ionized plasma in a slowly varying electric field. For some specific gases (N-2, CO2, and Ar), the rate constants are determined for the ionization, the attachment of electrons to molecules, and the excitation of the electronic and vibrational states of molecules. The results of numerical integration of the exact nonstationary Boltzmann equation carried out in this paper are compared with the results obtained in the framework of the developed approach.