Plasma decay in air and N2:O2:CO2 mixtures at high gas temperatures

Plasma decay after a high-voltage nanosecond discharge has been studied experimentally and numerically behind an incident or reflected shock wave in high temperature (600–2400 K) air and N
2
:O
2
:CO
2
mixtures for pressures between 0.05 and 0.9 atm. Time -resolved electron density history was measured by a microwave interferometer for initial electron densities in the range (1–3)×10
¹²
cm
⁻³
and the effective electron-ion recombination coefficient was determined. A numerical simulation was carried out to describe the temporal evolution of the densities of charged and neutral particles under the conditions considered. It was shown that the loss of electrons in this case is determined by dissociative recombination with O
2
⁺
ions. Electron attachment to O
2
to form negative ions is not important because of fast electron detachment in collisions with O atoms produced in the discharge.