The temporal decay of the diffusion-determined afterglow plasma of the positive column

Theoretical and experimental investigations of the afterglow decay in the diffusion-determined positive-column plasma of a neon discharge are presented. In the frame of the model the time-dependent electron Boltzmann equation, the rate equations for the neon atoms excited in the (metastable) and (resonance) level and an appropriate equation for the electric field are self-consistently solved. A radially averaged treatment has been used for the cylindrical, axially homogeneous column plasma. A detailed description of the model is given.