In this paper, we review our study of excitation coefficients in rare gases and in methane, some of the excitation cross sections that were obtained, the spatial profiles of emission (with absolute calibration) and secondary electron yields. The data for excitation coefficients have been analysed to produce the cross section data in some cases. The spatial profiles of emission at the low currents were used to establish the importance of the non-hydrodynamic relaxation and the contributions of heavy particles and reflected electrons. These data were also used to get more reliable secondary electron yields for rare gases. The spatial emission profiles at higher currents have been applied to obtain field profiles and make comparisons with hybrid models. In particular, we present in this paper, the emission coefficients in krypton and we discuss the wide range of interconnected applications of excitation coefficients and spatial emission profiles.

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Electron-induced chemistry-dissociative electron attachment (DEA)-was studied for phenyl azide. The major fragment corresponded to the loss of N 2 and formation of the phenylnitrene anion. This process has an onset already at zero kinetic energy of the incident electron and is interpreted as proceeding via the A π * electronic ground state of the phenyl azide anion. Other fragments, N − 3 and CN − , were observed at higher energies and interpreted as proceeding via low-lying shape resonances or higher lying core-excited resonances. The interpretation of the dissociative attachment spectra was supported by an investigation of the excited electronic states of neutral phenyl azide by electron energy-loss spectroscopy and DFT/MRCI calculations, and a study of shape and core-excited resonances of the phenyl azide anion by means of electron transmission spectroscopy and of cross sections for vibrational and electronic excitation by electron impact. Interesting parallels and differences are found by comparing DEA of phenyl and benzyl azides with the corresponding chloro compounds.

Energy spectra of electrons detached in collisions of Cl − and Br − with atomic hydrogen and deuterium have been measured for laboratory frame ion energies between 0.2 and 8.0 eV. Their shapes agree very well with the predictions of nonlocal resonance theory. Both types of structure predicted by the theory are observed. They are the 'v steps', at ro-vibrational thresholds, and the 'S steps', which are a consequence of interchannel coupling,which raises the cross section when a higher vibrational channel closes. They exhibit the behaviour predicted by theory both when the collision energy is varied and upon isotope substitution. The 'v steps' move to higher electron energies with higher collision energy and when hydrogen is substituted by deuterium, reflecting the higher maximum energy available to the electron. The positions of the S steps do not depend on collision energy, and are essentially equal to differences of vibrational energies of the product molecules HCl, DCl, HBr and DBr. The relative cross sections for formation of low vibrational levels (i.e., emission of fast electrons) are smaller in the deuterated compounds, reflecting the slower motion of D compared to H and consequently preferred detachment at high internuclear separations.

Charge coupled device (CCD) images of low-current low-pressure discharges allow us to measure a wide range of data required for discharge modeling and understanding of the main physical processes. In this paper, we show axial distributions of emission obtained from CCD images. These distributions have been used to provide data on basic transport properties, uniformity of the electric field, secondary electron yield, and for verification of plasma models.