Ionisation and recombination rates in argon plasmas

An approximate model for treating multistep ionisation and recombination in inert gas plasmas is presented. The model makes specific use of the typical electronic level structure of inert gases with a large energy gap between the ground state and first excited state, followed by levels which are relatively closely spaced. Formulae for ionisation and recombination rates in argon are derived which can be rapidly evaluated. The method is useful for inert gas plasmas in which radiation effects are secondary in importance or negligible.