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Updated: Jun 17, 2026

Non-equilibrium Microwave Plasma for Efficient High Temperature Chemistry
Published on: August 1, 2017
On the possibility of excitation heating of ions to high temperature
J R McNally1, M R Skidmore, P M Jenkins
1Thermonuclear Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
Abstract:
Cyclic or chainlike inelastic collision processes are invoked as an hypothesis to explain the grossly nonthermodynamic properties of energetic carbon and gas-fed carbon arcs confined by magnetic fields. Elastic collisions between the fast electrons (upsilon_ > upsilon(+) but E_ << E(+)) and the hot ions appear to be only about one-tenth as efficient a process for heating the ions as the proposed multiple inelastic collision process, which we call excitation-heating. In addition, a revised treatment of the rate of energy transfer from hot carbon ions to the very cold electrons (upsilon_ < upsilon(+)) reduces the conventional ion cooling rate by a factor of about 6.
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