Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2009
The equilibrium electron distribution in a general high-energy particle-beam generated plasma is analysed in detail by a Laplace transformation method in the neighbourhood of the first excitation threshold of the target gas, where all collisional processes, elastic and inelastic, must be taken into account concurrently with a continuous source term. Two continuity conditions for the distribution (and.its derivative) calculated below and above the first threshold, enable us to obtain an analytic representation of the macroscopic quantities such as electron temperature and density. A numerical application is made for the case of a high-energy electron beam ionizing atomic argon and the results are compared with those of the Plasma Group of Orsay.