On the quenching of excited electronic states of molecular nitrogen in nanosecond pulsed discharges in atmospheric pressure air

Emission measurements are carried out to study the quenching of excited electronic states of nitrogen, N(2)*, in nanosecond pulsed discharges in atmospheric pressure air and nitrogen. The results reveal that ground state N(2) quenches N(2)(C) and N(2)(B) at rates less than dissociative quenching by ground state O(2) by a factor of 4 and 2.5, respectively. Kinetic simulations with the inferred quench rates indicate that the dissociative quenching of N(2)* by O(2) is responsible for 82% of atomic oxygen production while electron-impact dissociation of O(2) is for 5% under these discharge conditions. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3535986]