Abstract
Experiments are described in which the time-dependence of the radiation intensities of Hg 3651A line were recorded after the cut-off of low pressure Hg-Ar discharges. It was found necessary to assume that this afterglow radiation is attributed to the recombination of electrons with molecular ions Hg2+ and HgAr+ The radiation decay time constants obtained from these spectroscopic data indicated that ambipolar diffusion is operative at low pressures, yielding the ambipolar diffusion coefficient DaPAr=3×102cm2s-1 Torr. At high pressures, electron removal is principally by dissociative recombinaions with molecular ions Hg2+ and HgAr+. Conversion of the atomic ions Hg+ to the molecular ions Hg2+ and HgAr+ according to the reactions Hg++Hg+Ar→Hg2++Ar and Hg++2Ar→HgAr++Ar is determined to occur at the rate of k1/PHgPAr=1.7×103s-1 Torr-2 and k2/PAr2=20s-1 Torr-2 respectively.
