Calculated Electron Mobility in Nitrogen, Oxygen and Air for 0.1  <i>E/p</i>  100 v cm^-1mmHg^-1

Abstract

The influence of different electron energy distribution functions, whose mean energy is obtained from swarm experiment data, and of various collision cross section variations upon the calculated mobility is investigated. It is shown that the mobility is mainly determined by the total scattering cross section and is insensitive to the form of the distribution, provided the cross section does not vary too rapidly with electron energy. Calculations are carried out assuming the Maxwellian distribution to hold and, using representations close to the experimental cross section data, good agreement between calculated and experimental mobility is obtained for some but not all of the available data.