Hydrogen Ions in the Positive Column of a Hydrogen Glow Discharge

摘要

A masshyphen;spectrometric technique has been applied to the investigation of the positive column of a hydrogen glow discharge. Ions emerging out of the tube are found to be composed of major components of Hplus;and H3plus;ions and minor component of H2plus;ion over a range ofEthinsp;sol;thinsp;p(the ratio of electric field strength to pressure) from about 30 to 100 V/cmmiddot;mm Hg and in a pressure range from 0.2ndash;1.6 mm Hg. The relative density of Hplus;ions decreases monotonically with increasing pressure from 57percnt; atpthinsp;equals;thinsp;0.2mm Hglpar;Ethinsp;sol;thinsp;pthinsp;eDot;thinsp;100rpar;to 36percnt; atpthinsp;equals;thinsp;1.6mm Hglpar;Ethinsp;sol;thinsp;pthinsp;eDot;thinsp;30rpar;, while that of H3plus;ions increases from 38percnt; atpthinsp;equals;thinsp;0.2mm Hglpar;Ethinsp;sol;thinsp;pthinsp;eDot;thinsp;100rpar;to 62percnt; atpthinsp;equals;thinsp;1.6mm Hglpar;Ethinsp;sol;thinsp;pthinsp;eDot;thinsp;30rpar;. The H2plus;ion density decreases with increasing pressure or with decreasingEthinsp;sol;thinsp;pand is less than 10percnt; of the total ion over the pressure range investigated. It is then found possible to obtain collision frequencies of the reactions H2plus;plus;H2rarr;H3plus;plus;H and H2plus;plus;H2rarr;Hplus;plus;Hplus;H2as a function ofEthinsp;sol;thinsp;p, assuming that these collision processes predominate in the plasma.