Dissociation of nitrogen in a pulse-periodic dielectric barrier discharge at atmospheric pressure

Nitrogen molecule dissociation in a pulse-periodic atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge is numerically analyzed. It is shown that the quenching rate of predissociation states at atmospheric pressure is relatively low and the production of nitrogen atoms in this case can be adequately described using the cross section for electron-impact dissociation of N2 molecules taken from the paper by P.C. Cosby [J. Chem. Phys. 98, 9544 (1993)].