Some Aspects in Recombining Transient Nitrogen Plasmas Some Aspects in Recombining Transient Nitrogen Plasmas Some Aspects in Recombining Transient Nitrogen Plasmas Some Aspects in Recombining Transient Nitrogen Plasmas Some Aspects in Recombining Transie

The temporal evolution of the population densities of a monatomic Nitrogen plasma has been studied in the electron temperature range 0.5 eV ≦ kTe ≦ 1 eV and in the electron number density interval 1012 cm-3 ≦ ne ≦1014 cm-3 by solving a coupled system of m aster equations. The results show that the times necessary to achieve quasi-stationary conditions for the population densities can be as long as 10-5 sec. in the optically thick plasma, and two order of magnitude shorter in the optically thin case. The possibility of population inversions during the recombination of a completely ionized Nitrogen plasma (ne ≃ 1015 cm-3, kTe = 0.5 eV) is then shown.