Ionisation kinetics in low-temperature plasma of noble gases

The theoretical and experimental study of the ionisation kinetics at the rapid growth of the external electric field has been performed in a low-temperature plasma. The initial electron density n e0 was between 10 9 and 10 11 cm -3 , the density of the ground-state atoms n 1 was between 10 16 and 10 19 cm -3 and the E/n 1 parameter was within the limits 3-300 Td. The theoretical model of the ionisation kinetics taking into account the most important collisional and radiative processes together with the diffusion phenomena was improved. The electron density growth was found to be of an explosive character. It has been shown that the ionic-molecular processes in a given range of the n e , n 1 and E/n 1 parameters are not significant for the electron density variation. Approximate analytical expressions were obtained for the ionisation development. Calculation and experiment were compared and showed good agreement.