Influence of Impurities on Surface Recombination of Nitrogen Atoms in Late Afterglow

The influence of impurity contents (water vapour and oxygen) on surface recombination of nitrogen atoms on the glass walls and the copper electrode surface is studied. The decay of nitrogen atom number density in late afterglow has been detected by the breakdown time delay method and the memory effect was found for nitrogen with large abundance of impurities (technical purity gas). The dominant reaction on the glass walls covered with water vapour was found to be of the second order. The surface recombination coefficient has been increased by about two orders of magnitude compared to the pure gas. Also, the increase of the secondary electron yield by about one order of magnitude occurs caused by chemisorbed oxygen on the electrode surface.