ABSTRACT
E xcited atom s and m olecu les p lay an ex trem ely im portan t role in p lasm a chem ical p rocesses, as d iscussed in C hap ter 3. T h a t chap te r w as concerned w ith e lem entary processes o f excited a tom s and m olecu les , w ith p robab ility analysis o f energy tran s fe r and chem ical reac tions tak ing p lace during co llision o f the excited species. A ctually , p lasm a chem ica l k inetics is even m ore sensitive to the concen tra tion o f these active partic les and to the popu la tion o f the excited states. S ta tis tics can describe the d is tribu tion functions o f the excited species only in quasi equ ilib rium or som e very specific nonequ ilib rium cond itions (see S ection 4 .1). In general, de te r m ining the d is tribu tion functions o f excited species requires the deta iled analysis o f relevan t k inetic equations tha t w ill take p lace in th is chapter.
