ELECTRON-ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS AND TRANSPORT PARAMETERS OF DIRECT-CURRENT ARGON DISCHARGES AT LOW-PRESSURES

The calculations cover the whole range of low electron densities to sufficiently high electron densities. Typical values of the ratios of the electric field to the gas density in this work are in the range of 10(-16) < E/N < 10(-15) V cm2. The results of the calculations show that as ionization degree n(e)/N (n(e), N being, respectively, the electron and gas density) increases, the electron energy distributions move towards a Maxwellian distribution and the drift velocities are enhanced in the low E/N value region.