The characteristic energy and momentum transfer cross section for low-energy electrons in neon

Abstract

The characteristic energy of low-energy electrons in neon gas has been measured at room temperature by the Townsend method as a function of the reduced electric field, E/N, where E denotes the field strength and N the number density of the gas atoms. The measured characteristic energy was 0.127 eV at E/N=0.014 Td and increased monotonously with increasing E/N. The momentum transfer cross section for electrons in neon was derived from the data for an energy range from 0.01 to 1 eV. The result was found to be in excellent agreement with previous estimates obtained by different methods, particularly for the energy range from 0.1 to 0.5 eV. All of the four theoretical cross sections calculated by Thompson, Garbaty and LaBahn (1971), Yau et al (1978) and McEachran and Stauffer (1978) agree with the authors' experimental cross section within about +or-20%.