Weakly ionized plasma electron kinetics

To illustrate the behavior of electron kinetic quantities in steady-state conditions, weakly ionized plasmas in neon and molecular nitrogen are considered as typical representatives of atomic and molecular gas plasmas. 

By the preceding representations, an attempt has been made to give, on the basis of the electron Boltzmann equation, an introduction to the kinetic treatment of the electron component in steady-state, time-dependent, and space-dependent plasmas and to illustrate by selected examples the large variety of electron kinetics in anisothermal weakly ionized plasmas. 

Typical low-temperature plasmas are usually only weakly ionized and quasineutral but are thermally in a non-equilibrium state, i.e. the different plasma species (molecules, atoms, ions and electrons) possess different kinetic energy distributions. Because of their small mass electrons acquire much more kinetic energy than atomic or molecular species and thus show an energy distribution which corresponds to a much higher temperature than in the case of much heavier particles. The stability of ionic liquids towards reduction by these hot electrons... 

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