Collisional-radiative model of Nanosecond Repetitively Pulsed Discharges and Dielectric Barrier Discharges in hydrogen plasmas

The role of vibrational kinetics of H2 in high pressure pulsed discharges is discussed. To this end, a self-consistent model coupling chemical kinetics, internal distributions and free electron kinetics has been used to perform 0D time dependent calculations. This approach allowed to investigate the complex interaction between non equilibrium distribution of internal levels and of free electrons, these last strongly affected by the presence of superelastic collisions with both vibrational and electronically excited states.