Velocity distribution functions for electron swarms in methane in electric and magnetic fields

摘要

Transport coefficients and velocity distribution functions for electron swarms in methane in the presence of uniform static electric and magnetic fields crossed at arbitrary angles to each other are calculated using a multi-term solution of the Boltzmann equation. Particular attention is paid to the effects of the relative orientation of the fields and how this affects the convergence in the spherical harmonic expansion that represents the velocity distribution function. The inadequacies and incorrect assumptions of previous treatments of this problem are also highlighted.