Chemi-ionization in mercury and neon discharges

Summary form only given, as follows. Modeling of discharge light sources is becoming increasingly important in predicting device performance and determination of optimal regimes for their operation. A good knowledge of the elementary processes occurring under non-equilibrium conditions is a prerequisite for any model. Chemi-ionization processes involving collisions of excited atoms play a crucial role in many lighting discharges, both for low (a few torr) and higher (>10 torr) gas pressures. The understanding of such processes and their role in discharge power balance is scant, and quantitative data on the rate coefficients is inadequate. Experimental studies of chemi-ionization in collisions of metastable neon and mercury atoms were recently initiated at Brooklyn Polytechnic University. Rate coefficients for collisions between two p/sup 5/3s/sup 13/P/sub 2/ and between 2p/sup 5/3s/sup 13/P/sub 2/ and /sup 3/P/sub 1/ excited neon atoms were measured using plasma electron spectroscopy. Investigation of chemi-ionization in collisions of 6/sup 3/P/sub 0,1,2/ mercury states is under way and the intermediate results will be reported.