Boltzmann statistical consideration on the excitation mechanism of iron atomic lines emitted from glow discharge plasmas

A Boltzmann plot for many iron atomic lines having excitation energies of 3.3–6.9 eV was investigated in glow discharge plasmas when argon or neon was employed as the plasma gas. The plot did not show a linear relationship over a wide range of the excitation energy, but showed that the emission lines having higher excitation energies largely deviated from a normal Boltzmann distribution whereas those having low excitation energies (3.3–4.3 eV) well followed it. This result would be derived from an overpopulation among the corresponding energy levels. A probable reason for this is that excitations for the high-lying excited levels would be caused predominantly through a Penning-type collision with the metastable atom of argon or neon, followed by recombination with an electron and then stepwise de-excitations which can populate the excited energy levels just below the ionization limit of iron atom. The non-thermal excitation occurred more actively in the argon plasma rather than the neon plasma, because of a difference in the number density between the argon and the neon metastables. The Boltzmann plots yields important information on the reason why lots of Fe I lines assigned to high-lying excited levels can be emitted from glow discharge plasmas.

► This paper shows the excitation mechanism of Fe I lines from a glow discharge plasma.
► A Boltzmann distribution is studied among iron lines of various excitation levels.
► We find an overpopulation of the high-lying energy levels from the normal distribution.
► It is caused through Penning-type collision of iron atom with argon metastable atom.