DEACTIVATION DYNAMICS OF VIBRATIONALLY EXCITED NITROGEN MOLECULES BY NITROGEN-ATOMS - EFFECTS ON NONEQUILIBRIUM VIBRATIONAL DISTRIBUTION AND DISSOCIATION RATES OF NITROGEN UNDER ELECTRICAL DISCHARGES

The non-equilibrium vibrational distribution and the dissociation kinetics of N2 in electrical discharges has been calculated by solving an appropriate vibrational master equation. Attention has been devoted to the role of nitrogen atoms in deactivation the vibrational distribution. To this end, a complete set of V-T (vibration-translation) deactivation rates of vibrationally excited molecules by nitrogen atoms has been calculated using a quasiclassical trajectory technique. The results show that nitrogen atoms formed by electron impact are able to deactivate the high vibrational levels (v > 25) of N2 strongly affecting the heavy particle dissociation kinetics of N2.