2005/11/18 by H. P. Summers, H P Summers, W J Dickson +15 · 253 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Molecular Physics #Dust and Plasma Wave Phenomena #Excited state #Impurity #Ion #Ionization #Laser-induced spectroscopy and plasma #Metastability #Neon #Population #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0741-3335/48/2/007
published in Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 48(2), 263-293 (IOP Publishing) · At Press for Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. 33 pages, 11 figures
arxiv created 2005/11/18 · openalex publication_date 2006/01/13 · arxiv updated 2015/06/24 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The paper presents an integrated view of the population structure and its role in establishing the ionization state of light elements in dynamic, finite density, laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. There are four main issues, the generalized collisional–radiative picture for metastables in dynamic plasmas with Maxwellian free electrons and its particularizing to light elements, the methods of bundling and projection for manipulating the population equations, the systematic production/use of state selective fundamental collision data in the metastable resolved picture to all levels for collisonal–radiative modelling and the delivery of appropriate derived coefficients for experiment analysis. The ions of carbon, oxygen and neon are used in illustration. The practical implementation of the methods described here is part of the ADAS Project.