Kinetics of Nonequilibrium Low-Temperature Plasmas

One Low-Temperature Plasma. General Information.- 1.1. Quasineutrality. Debye Screening.- 1.2. Ideal Plasma.- 1.3. Equilibrium Plasma.- 1.4. Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium. Elementary Processes.- 1.5. Features of the Transport Phenomena.- 1.6. Nonequilibrium Low-Temperature and High-Temperature Plasmas.- Two Elementary Processes in a Low-Temperature Plasma.- 2.1. Elastic Collisions.- 2.2. Inelastic Collisions of Electrons with Atoms, Ions, and Molecules.- 2.3. Inelastic Collisions with Heavy Particles.- 2.4. Elementary Radiative Processes.- 2.5. Average Energy Transferred to an Atom in Collisions.- Three Radiative Transport of Excitation.- 3.1. Basic Characteristics of Radiative Excitation Transport.- 3.2. Radiative Excitation Transport Equation.- 3.3. Effective-Lifetime Approximation.- 3.4. Radiative Excitation Transport in an Inhomogeneous Medium.- 3.5. Domain of Application of the Theory.- Four Criteria for the Onset of Nonequilibrium States.- 4.1. Criterion for Detachment of the Electron Temperature.- 4.2. Criterion for Equilibrium Ionization and for an Equilibrium Distribution of the Atoms over Levels.- 4.3. Criterion for the Breakdown of the Maxwellian Distribution.- Five Population Kinetics of Excited States.- 5.1. Qualitative Picture of the Population Distribution in a Nonequilibrium Plasma.- 5.2. System of Kinetic Balance Equations for the Populations of Excited States.- 5.3. Numerical Methods of Solving the System of Kinetic Equations for the Populations.- 5.4. Diffusion Approximation.- 5.5. Discrete Methods and the Modified Diffusion Approximation.- 5.6. Comparison of the Populations Found Analytically with the Results of Computer Calculations and Experiments.- 5.7. Influence of Atom-Atom Collisions on the Population Distribution.- 5.8. Allowance for Sourcesof Excited Atoms in the System of Balance Equations.- 5.9. Features of the Impact-Radiation Kinetics in a Rarefied Plasma.- 5.10. Some Applications of the Theory.- Six Kinetics of Ionization and Recombination.- 6.1. Elementary Kinetics of Ionization and Recombination.- 6.2. Basic Kinetic Equations for Ionization and Recombination and the Results of Their Numerical Solution.- 6.3. Coefficients of Impact-Radiative Recombination in the Diffusion and Modified Diffusion Approximations.- 6.4. Electron Density under Steady Nonequilibrium Conditions.- Seven Electron Energy Distribution and Energy Balance.- 7.1. Kinetic Equation and the Electron Energy Balance.- 7.2. Inelastic Collisions. Their Influence on the Electron Energy Balance, Excitation Rate, and Ionization.- 7.3. Self-Consistent Distributions for Electrons over Energies and Atoms over Excited States.- 7.4. Electron Energy Distribution in a Strong Electric Field.- Eight Transient Nonequilibrium Plasmas.- 8.1. Criteria of Quasisteadiness.- 8.2. Ionizational Relaxation.- 8.3. Radiation from Transient Plasmas.- 8.4. Relaxation of the Distribution Function.- 8.5. Instabilities of a Nonequilibrium Plasma in an External Electric Field.- Nine Some Topics in the Kinetics of Molecular Plasmas.- 9.1. Electron Energy Balance.- 9.2. Electron Energy Distribution Function.- 9.3. Distribution of Molecules over Vibrational Levels.- 9.4. Electron-Ion Recombination in Molecular Gases.- 9.5. Some Topics in the Kinetics of Atomic-Molecular Plasmas.- Appendixes.- Appendix 1. Values of the Level-Population Coefficients of Atomic Hydrogen.- Appendix 2. Differential and Finite-Difference Fokker-Planck Equations.- Appendix 3. Energy Level Schemes of Atoms.- Appendix 4. Sample Calculation of the Populations of Excited Atoms in the Modified Diffusion Approximation.- References.