Vibrational energy exchanges in nitrogen: application of new rate constants for kinetic modeling

The state-to-state collisional data on vibration-vibration and vibration-translation/rotation energy exchanged in N2(v)-N2(v') collisions recently obtained from accurate ab initio semiclassical calculations have been used to analyze the data measured in nitrogen under two different plasma conditions. In particular, the vibrational distribution function and the time-evolution of the gas temperature measured under post-discharge and glow discharge conditions, respectively, have been calculated and compared with the experimental observations. The theoretical analysis and the related results, generally in very good agreement with the experimental data, provide insight into the various energy-exchange mechanisms that lie behind the macroscopic behaviors of the nitrogen plasmas. In particular, the role played by the vibrationally excited nitrogen molecules in the gas kinetics is pointed out, as well as the importance of nitrogen atom production in the long time scales of the glow discharge.