TRANSPORT CHARACTERISTICS OF ELECTRONS IN NITROUS OXIDE (N2O) UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF CROSSED ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC DC FIELDS

Abstract

Monte Carlo (MC) calculations of transport and rate coefficients of an electron swarm moving in nitrous oxide (N2O) under the influence of DC crossed electric and magnetic orthogonal fields are present- ed. The set of cross sections for e-/N2O scattering obtained in our previous investigations was used as the initial parameter. Calculations of mean energy, drift velocity, diffusion coefficients and rate coefficients for elastic and individual inelastic processes were performed for five different values of the reduced magnetic field (B/N = 100 Hx, 200 Hx, 500 Hx, 1000 Hx and 2000 Hx, 1Hx = 10-27 Tm3), where for each of these values, the value of the reduced electric field (E/N) ranged from 50 Td to 2000 Td (1Td = 10-21Vm2). The ratio of cyclotron to total collision frequency in these cases is less than one for all values of B/N (except for the highest one when it is slightly greater than one), so we may claim that our swarm is in a collision-domi- nated regime. The cooling effect of the swarm is observable, i.e. there is a decrease in its mean energy as the magnetic field increases, as well as a decrease in the drift velocity component in the electric field direction. Electron diffusion is slightly anisotropic for the higher values of B/N.