RECOMBINATION THROUGH ELECTRON-ELECTRON COLLISIONS

Journal Article · Sat Feb 25 04:00:00 EST 1961 · Nature

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/189652a0· OSTI ID:4065065

Bates, D R; Kingston, A E

In dense plasmas, recombination through electron-electron collisions can be the major cause of loss of free electrons. The mechanism is akin to three- body ionic recombination but differs because of the long-range Coulomb forces involved bacause the bound states cannot be treated as forminng a continuum and because of the effect of radiative transitions. Suppose that the ions are protons and suppose also that the temperature is such that the mean thermal energy is much less than the first excitation energy of hydrogen. Radiative recombination is slow, but highly excited hydrogen atoms are rapidly formed through electron-electron collisions: HI/sup +/ + e + e -- H + e. These atoms may be ionized by the reverse process; or they may gain or lose internal energy by suffering superelastic or inelastic collisions with electrons or by absorbing or emitting photons. The passage of an electron from a state of the continuum to the ground state or an atom is clearly in the nature of a random walk during the course of which many different states may be entered. Calculations have been carried out to cover various conditions. Some representutive results are presented. (auth)

• Research Organization: Queen's Univ., Belfast
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• NSA Number: NSA-15-013843
• OSTI ID: 4065065
• Journal Information: Nature, Journal Name: Nature Vol. Vol: 189
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ABSORPTION
ATOMS
BOUND STATE
DENSITY
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ELECTRONS
EMISSION
ENERGY LEVELS
EXCITATION
GAMMA RADIATION
HYDROGEN
INELASTIC SCATTERING
INTERACTIONS
ION RECOMBINATION
IONIZATION
IONS
LOSSES
PHOTONS
PHYSICS
PLASMA
PROTONS
RADIATIONS
SCATTERING
STATISTICS
TEMPERATURE
TRANSIENTS
TRANSITIONS