Аннотация:The mechanism of N2 dissociation in the stationary nitrogen direct-current (DC)
glow discharge was studied both experimentally and theoretically. The com-
prehensive analysis of gas heating, key plasma-chemical processes that a¨ect
the energy balance, vibrational distribution function, and the dissociation of
N2 molecules were carried out. Simulations reproduced well the experimental
data on gas temperature, N2 dissociation degree, and effective dissociation rate
kediss(E/N) depending on gas pressure and discharge current. It was shown that
nitrogen dissociation mechanism in the stationary N2 discharge is mostly pro-
vided by direct electron impact via the excitation of the predissociative states
N∗2 from the vibrationally excited nitrogen molecules N2(X,v) while the most
probable candidate for N2 dissociation as previously considered - reaction
N2(A) + N2(14<=v<=19) → N + N + N2, was not capable to reproduce the
data.