Anomalous Anisotropic Diffusion of Electron Swarms in AC Electric Fields

Abstract

A time-dependent multi-term solution of the Boltzmann equation is used to calculate the drift and diffusion coefficients of electron swarms in gases under the influence of a time varying electric field. Two model gases are considered and for a.c. electric fields results are presented for a wide range of applied frequencies. Of particular interest is the anomalous temporal behaviour of the longitudinal diffusion coefficient, which is discussed here for the first time.