Analysis of transient voltage measurements from electron swarm experiments including ionisation and attachment

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Abstract
A comprehensive theoretical analysis of the form of measurements obtained in the electron swarm experimental method due to Grunberg is presented. The analysis covers the general case of such experiments in which electron diffusion, electron collisional ionisation and electron attachment are present. The approach is based upon the scalar form of the Maxwell-Boltzmann continuity equation; the concept of energy supplied from a uniform drift field; and, the fact that typical experimental measurement information may be resolved into distinct electron and ion components. A generalised voltage ratio expression is derived in a form which is directly applicable to the characteristics of integrated voltage transient measurements. A special case of the analysis is shown to be consistent with the existing experimentally tested, simplified theory. The generality of the analysis provides the opportunity of designing new experimental situations in which drift velocities, diffusion coefficients, ionisation coefficients and attachment coefficients may be analysed from the same set of measurement data.

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