ARGON-TITANIUM HOLLOW CATHODE AFTERGLOW

The mechanisms of the energy transfer between metastable and ionic species of the rare gases and metallic atoms are responsible for the laser action in rare gas-metal vapor discharge. Knowledge of the mechanisms of the production and loss of the metallic species in a rare gas plasma is therefore very inportant. The pulsed afterglow technique has already been used to study the excited metallic ion production in He-Cd, He-Zn (1) and He-Pb (2) discharge. In these experiments, the discharge cell containing metal pellets is placed inside an oven to produce the metal vapor at desired pressure. But this technique cannot be used for the metals having a high boiling point. For example a density of 1011 atoms cm-3 is obtained at 210°C for Zinc but at 1300°C for Titanim