A Monte Carlo simulation of electron swarm parameters in He-CO mixtures

Abstract

A computer simulation technique for the study of electron swarm parameters in gases is presented. The method enables calculation of the electron energy distribution function (EDF) as well as various average electronic properties in electrical discharges. The simulation is applied to He-CO mixtures and the results are in fair agreement with experimental values and with other computational works. A strong directional anisotropy in the EDF is observed at high relative concentrations of CO, especially at electron energies for which the inelastic collision cross section is relatively big and at high values of the reduced electric field (E/N). The calculations include the influence of elastic, inelastic and both superelastic vibrational collisions (SVC) and superelastic electronic collisions (SEC). The results show that the SEC create different plateaus in the EDF, affecting only the tail of the EDF. The role of SEC becomes more important as E/N is lowered, the effect being more evident in the absence of SVC.