Study of electron kinetics in nitrogen plasma induced by CO2 laser radiation

In the present work, a numerical modeling is performed to study the electron kinetics in nitrogen plasma induced by CO2 laser radiation operating at wavelength 9.621 μm, and pulse duration of 60 ns corresponding to the measurements carried out by Camacho et al. (J Phys B At Mol Opt Phys 40:4573, 2007). In this experiment, the breakdown threshold intensity is determined for molecular nitrogen over a pressure range 301–760 torr. A previously developed electron cascade model (Evans and Gamal in J Phys D Appl Phys 13:1447, 1980) is modified and applied. This model is based on numerical solution of a time-dependent energy equation and a set of rate equations that describe the time variation of the formed excited states population. The effect of breakdown mechanism is decided through the calculations of the threshold intensity as a function of gas pressure considering the various physical processes that might take place during the interaction. The individual effect of each loss process on the electron energy distribution function and its parameters is studied. This study is performed at the lowest and highest values of the experimentally tested gas pressure range namely; 301 and 760 torr. The obtained results clarified the exact contribution of each loss process to the breakdown of nitrogen induced by CO2 laser radiation.