Calculations of the populations of excited levels of multiply charged Al ions in a laser plasma

An investigation is made of the influence of the choice of possible mechanisms for filling of the levels and the choice of various expressions for the rates of the elementary processes on the distribution of Al ions over excited levels and ionization states. The calculations are made using the collisional radiative model (steady-state case) in the approximation of an optically thin plasma. It is shown that the neglect of impact deexcitation and three-particle recombination processes results in overpopulation of the first excited level and distortion of the Boltzmann distribution in highly excited levels.