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Development of electron avalanches in argon-an exact Boltzmann equation analysis

K Kitamori, H Tagashira and Y Sakai

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Development of the electron avalanche in argon has been studied at E/N=141, 283 and 566 Td by two exact Boltzmann equation methods, a Fourier expansion (FE) of the distribution function of electrons by Tagashira et al. (1978), and a direct estimation of moments (DEM) of the electron density distribution in the real space by starting from a Boltzmann equation. Elastic momentum transfer, total electronic excitation and ionisation collisions are considered. The electron swarm parameters obtained by FE agree exactly with those by DEM, justifying the expansion used in FE, and the swarm parameters obtained by two-term expansion (TE) are in good agreement with those obtained by the exact FE and DEM except the longitudinal diffusion coefficient DL and a higher order coefficient D3 at E/N=566 Td and the transverse diffusion coefficient DT at all the E/N studied, suggesting that the disagreement with DL and D3 is due simply to breakdown of TE at high E/N but the disagreement with DT is due to more essential insufficiency in TE. The electron velocity distributions are also obtained and discussed.


PACS

51.20.+d Viscosity, diffusion, and thermal conductivity

51.10.+y Kinetic and transport theory of gases

51.50.+v Electrical properties (ionization, breakdown, electron and ion mobility, etc.)

Subjects

Plasma physics

Dates

Issue 4 (14 April 1980)



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