Transient behavior of a nonequilibrium plasma formed by merged beams

A low density, low temperature plasma formed by two merged beams of electrons and ions at near zero relative velocity is studied by solving a set of time-dependent rate equations. In particular, we investigate the role played by the radiative recombination (RR) and three-body recombination (TBR) on the population of excited states during the initial stage of plasma rearrangement and relaxation. It is found in the case of hydrogenic plasmas that low-lying states are filled predominantly by RR, while high Rydberg states are populated mainly by TBR. As the plasma further relaxes, the collisional excitation and de-excitation, and radiative decays become important, filling the median excited states. The dependence of the TBR and RR rates on ionic charge Z is discussed to extend the result to plasmas of high Z ions.