Electron Transport and Rate Coefficients in Townsend Discharges

Abstract

Electron swarm parameters such as the drift velocity, diffusion coefficients and ionization rates have been calculated by many authors. However, the values obtained for most parameters depend upon the type of experiment under consideration, so that, for a given gas and a fixed value of E/ N, differences are obtained for steady-state Townsend, pulsed Townsend and time-of-flight experiments It is shown that this is an unnecessary complication since each experiment can be analysed in terms of time-of-flight parameters. It is proposed that calculated parameters should be presented in a manner which would assist not only in the analysis of the above experiments but also in other swarm studies in progress.