General model for electron drift and diffusion in a dense gas

Abstract

The author presents a general unified model of electron transport in a dense gas of attractive or repulsive scatterers. It attempts to graft the multiple scattering theory of waves, and wave motion in a random medium, plus a newly derived second Ioffe-Regel criterion onto classical Boltzmann theory, with help from drift velocity experiments. The model describes diffusion as well as drift, electric fields strong enough to cause nonthermal energy distributions and high density (nonlinear) effects. Some good agreement is shown with experiment for the mobilities and drift velocities, and a tentative agreement for the diffusion coefficient where experiments are scarce.