The understanding of the ro-vibrational dynamics in molecular (near)-atmospheric pressure plasmas is essential to investigate the influence of vibrational excited molecules on the discharge properties. In a companion paper Kuhfeld et al (2021 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 54 305204), results of ro-vibrational coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) measurements for a nanosecond pulsed plasma jet consisting of two conducting molybdenum electrodes with a gap of 1 mm in nitrogen at 200 mbar are presented. Here, those results are discussed and compared to theoretical predictions based on rate coefficients for the relevant processes found in the literature. It is found, that during the discharge the measured vibrational excitation agrees well with predictions obtained from the rates for resonant electron collisions calculated by Laporta et al (2014 Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 23 065002). The predictions are based on the electric field during the discharge, measured by electric field induced second harmonic generation Kuhfeld et al (2021 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 54 305204), Lepikhin et al (2020 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 54 055201) and the electron density, which is deduced from the field and mobility data calculated with Bolsig+ Hagelaar and Pitchford (2005 Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 14 722–33). In the afterglow a simple kinetic simulation for the vibrational subsystem of nitrogen is performed and it is found, that the populations of vibrational excited states develop according to vibrational-vibrational transfer on timescales of a few microseconds, while the development on timescales of some hundred microseconds is determined by the losses at the walls. No significant influence of electronically excited states on the populations of the vibrational states visible in the CARS measurements () was observed.

了解分子（近）大气压等离子体中的旋转振动动力学对于研究振动激发分子对放电特性的影响至关重要。在配套论文 Kuhfeld等人(2021 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 54 305204)，提供了纳秒脉冲等离子体射流的旋转振动相干反斯托克斯拉曼散射 (CARS) 测量结果，该射流由两个导电钼电极组成，在 200 毫巴的氮气中，间隙为 1 毫米。在这里，这些结果被讨论并与基于文献中相关过程的速率系数的理论预测进行比较。发现，在放电期间，测量的振动激发与从 Laporta等人(2014 Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 23 065002)计算的共振电子碰撞率获得的预测非常吻合。预测基于放电过程中的电场，通过电场感应二次谐波产生 Kuhfeld 测量等人(2021 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 54 305204)、Lepikhin等人(2020 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 54 055201) 以及从场和迁移率数据推导出的电子密度使用 Bolsig+ Hagelaar 和 Pitchford 计算（2005 Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 14722–33）。在余辉中，对氮的振动子系统进行了简单的动力学模拟，发现振动激发态的种群在几微秒的时间尺度上根据振动-振动转移而发展，而在数百微秒的时间尺度上发展由墙壁上的损失决定。没有观察到电子激发态对 CARS 测量中可见的振动态的数量 ( ) 的显着影响。