Electron Kinetics with Attachment and Ionization from Higher Order Solutions of Boltzmann's Equation

An appropriate approach is presented for solving the Boltzmann equation for electron swarms and nonstationary weakly ionized plasmas in the hydrodynamic stage, including ionization and attachment processes. Using a Legendre-polynomial expansion of the electron velocity distribution function the resulting eigenvalue problem has been solved at any even truncation-order. The technique has been used to study velocity distribution, mean collision frequencies, energy transfer rates, nonstationary behaviour and power balance in hydrodynamic stage, of electrons in a model plasma and a plasma of pure SF₆. The calculations have been performed for increasing approximation-orders, up to the converged solution of the problem. In particular, the transition from dominant attachment to prevailing ionization when increasing the field strength has been studied. Finally the establishment of the hydrodynamic stage for a selected case in the model plasma has been investigated by solving the nonstationary, spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation in twoterm approximation.