Kinetics of populations of singlet and triplet states in non-equilibrium hydrogen plasma

Collision-radiative models of a low-temperature, non-equilibrium hydrogen plasma are described. A large set of processes in hydrogen plasma is presented with references to the characteristics of these processes.

A semi-empirical 0D model developed at the Topchiev Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis of the Russian Academy of Sciences (the model HCRM-TIPS) is briefly considered. This model, along with the processes used in other models, describes the kinetics of the population of the singlet and triplet states of hydrogen. This has made it feasible to analyze the possibilities of using plasma diagnostics for emission spectra. The limits of applicability of the simplified coronal model for diagnostics of DC, microwave and ECR discharges are determined (Lebedev and Karoulina 1988 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 21 411). (topical review)