ASSESSMENT OF ELECTRON ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS IN DISCHARGES BY OPTICAL EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY

A procedure for the reconstruction of electron energy distribution functions (EEDF) of low-temperature neon plasmas from optical emission spectroscopy data is presented. A data descriptive model, including the physics of the plasma discharge and the spectroscopic measurement is developed. Particular refinements of the model regarding the apparatus function of the spectrometer and the optical depth of the plasma for light emission with metastable final states are discussed. The effect of uncertainties in the atomic data entering the model is assessed. Maxwellian and Druyvestein parameterizations for the EEDF are employed. Discrepancies of the reconstructed EEDF with results from independent modelling are not within the error bounds of the data descriptive model.