The parameters of plasma and the kinetics of generation and loss of active particles in chlorine-nitrogen mixtures

An investigation is performed of the effect of the initial composition of Cl$_2$/N$_2$ mixture on the electrophysical and kinetic parameters of plasma of a dc glow discharge. It is found that the dilution of chlorine with nitrogen causes a variation of the electron energy distribution function (EEDF), which is accompanied by an increase in the average electron energy and in the rate constants of threshold elementary processes. It is demonstrated that the principal mechanism of generation of chlorine atoms is the dissociation of Cl$_2$ molecules under electron impact; in so doing, the contributions by stepwise processes involving metastable molecules N$_2^*$ ($A^3\Sigma_u^+$) and vibrationally excited molecules N$_2^*$ ($v > 7$) are negligible. The assumption of the first kinetic order of heterogeneous recombination of chlorine atoms with a probability of $(4{-}5) \times 10^{-4}$ provides for adequate agreement between the calculation and experimental data on reduced field intensity, rate constant of recombination, and concentration of atoms.