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The ionization fraction is a key figure of merit for optimizing the performance of plasma device. This work presents an optical emission spectroscopy (OES) method to determine the ionization fraction in low-temperature xenon plasma. The emission line-ratio of xenon ionic and atomic 6p–6stransitions is used in this method. A comprehensive collisional-radiative model developed in our previous work is employed to describe the relationship between the line-ratios and the plasma parameters. It is found that some special line-ratios have a sensitive relationship to the ionization fraction, e.g. the ratio of the 460.30 nm line and 828.01 nm lines. These line-ratios are selected for the diagnostic method. The method is demonstrated in a magnetized discharge chamber. The axially-resolved emission spectra of the ionization chamber are measured, and from those the ionization fraction along the chamber axis is determined via the OES method. The axially-resolved ionization fraction is found to be dependent on the magnetic field and agrees well with those obtained from a Langmuir probe. In the experiment, the probe is overheated under some conditions, possibly due to the bombardment by energetic particles. In this case, no results can be obtained from the probe, while the OES method can still obtain reasonable results. Combined with optical tomography and spectral imaging technology, the OES method can also provide the spatial distribution of the ionization fraction, which is needed for revealing the discharge mechanisms of plasma devices.

 

Within the framework of the improved quantitative rescattering (QRS) model, we simulate the correlated two-electron momentum distributions (CMDs) for nonsequential double ionization (NSDI) of Ar by elliptically polarized laser pulses with a wavelength of 788 nm at an intensity of 0.7 × 10¹⁴W/cm²for the ellipticities ranging from 0 to 0.3. Only the CMDs for recollision excitation with subsequent ionization (RESI) are calculated and the contribution from recollision direct ionization is neglected. According to the QRS model, the CMD for RESI can be factorized as a product of the parallel momentum distribution (PMD) for the first released electron after recollision and the PMD for the second electron ionized from an excited state of the parent ion. The PMD for the first electron is obtained from the laser-free differential cross sections for electron impact excitation of Ar⁺calculated using state-of-the-art many-electronR-matrix theory while that for the second electron is evaluated by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The results show that the CMDs for all the ellipticities considered here exhibit distinct anticorrelated back-to-back emission of the electrons along the major polarization direction, and the anticorrelation is more pronounced with increasing ellipticity. It is found that anticorrelation is attributed to the pattern of the PMD for the second electron ionized from the excited state that, in turn, is caused by the delayed recollision time with respect to the instant of the external field crossing. Our work shows that both the ionization potential of the excited parent ion and the laser intensity play important roles in the process.

 

Since its initial development in the 1970s by Phil Burke and his collaborators, the R-matrix theory and associated computer codes have become the method of choice for the calculation of accurate data for general electron–atom/ion/molecule collision and photoionization processes. The use of a non-orthogonal set of orbitals based on B-splines, now called the B-spline R-matrix (BSR) approach, was pioneered by Zatsarinny. It has considerably extended the flexibility of the approach and improved particularly the treatment of complex many-electron atomic and ionic targets, for which accurate data are needed in many modelling applications for processes involving low-temperature plasmas. Both the original R-matrix approach and the BSR method have been extended to the interaction of short, intense electromagnetic (EM) radiation with atoms and molecules. Here, we provide an overview of the theoretical tools that were required to facilitate the extension of the theory to the time domain. As an example of a practical application, we show results for two-photon ionization of argon by intense short-pulse extreme ultraviolet radiation. 

We reinvestigate a key process in electron-atom collision physics, the elastic scattering of electrons from helium atoms. Specifically, results from a special-purpose relativistic polarized-orbital method, which is designed to treat elastic scattering only, are compared with those from a very extensive, fully ab initio, general-purpose B-spline R-matrix (close-coupling) code. 

We have applied the full-relativistic Dirac B-Spline R-matrix method to obtain cross sections for electron scattering from ytterbium atoms. The results are compared with those obtained from a semi-relativistic (Breit-Pauli) model-potential approach and the few available experimental data. 

The Dirac B-spline R-matrix (DBSR) method is employed to treat low-energy electron collisions with thallium atoms. Special emphasis is placed on spin polarization phenomena that are investigated through calculations of the differential cross-section and the spin asymmetry function. Overall, good agreement between the present calculations and the available experimental measurements is found. The contributions of electron exchange to the spin asymmetry cannot be ignored at low impact energies, while the spin–orbit interaction plays an increasingly significant role as the impact energy rises.