Atom-atom excitation in shock waves in argon-oxygen mixture

The slope constants of the excitational cross-section for atom-atom and atom-electron collisions were generally considered and that for the oxygen atom-atom collision S0-0 was determined to be 3.14 x 10-19 cm2/eV. Using the newly determined value of S0-0, the calculation of the ionizing shock structure of argon-oxygen mixture was made at shock Mach number MS = 17.1 and the initial pressure P1 = 2.85 Torr. From the comparison of the calculated value of relaxation length with the experimental one, it was proved that the experimental result can be explained well by the present determined value of S0-0. (author)