Method for including electron-electron collisions in Monte Carlo simulations of electron swarms in partially ionized gases

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Abstract
A method whereby electron-electron collisions can be included in Monte Carlo simulations of electron swarms in low-temperature partially ionized plasmas is presented. In this method, electron-electron (e-e) collisions are treated as being functionally equivalent to electron–neutral-species collisions. In doing so, individual pseudoelectron particles in the simulation collide with an energy-resolved electron fluid. Energy is exchanged with this fluid using the Coulomb cross section. When e-e collisions dominate, the electron-energy distribution evolves to being Maxwellian. The method is made computationally tractable by using a modified null-cross-section technique that eliminates the need for recalculating collision probabilities as the electron-energy distribution evolves.