Eur. Phys. J. D 45, 309-315 (2007)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2007-00254-x

Monte Carlo simulations of electron dynamics in N₂/CO₂ mixtures

¹ École Centrale Paris, Laboratoire EM2C - CNRS UPR 288, Grande Voie des Vignes, 92290 Châtenay-Malabry, France
² Comenius University, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Department of Astronomy, Earth Physics and Meteorology, Mlynská dolina F2, 842 48 Bratislava, Slovakia

Corresponding author: ^a mario.janda@em2c.ecp.fr

Received: 11 May 2007
Revised: 19 July 2007
Published online: 31 August 2007

Abstract

Motivated by experimental investigations of electrical discharges in N₂/CO₂/H₂O, Monte Carlo (MC) electron dynamics simulations in atmospheric N₂/CO₂ mixtures were performed. The goal was to obtain electron energy distribution functions (EEDFs), mean free path, drift velocity, collision frequency and mean energy of electrons, rate coefficients of electron-impact reactions, ionisation and attachment coefficients, as functions of the reduced electric field strength (E/N) and of the concentration of individual gas components. The results obtained by MC simulations were fitted with polynomials of up to the 3rd order with reasonable accuracy for E/N above 80 Td. The studied parameters below 80 Td were strongly non-linear as functions of E/N. This is mostly due to the influence of elastic collisions of electrons with CO₂ molecules prevailing in CO₂-dominant mixtures for E/N < 40 Td, and vibrational excitation collisions of N₂ species prevailing in N₂-dominant mixtures for E/N from 40 to 80 Td. The effect of these electron-impact processes was specific for each of the studied parameters.