ELECTRON-DRIVEN RATES IN HEXE GLOW-DISCHARGES

We have performed a series of space-independent, electron Boltzmann ca lculations for the determination of electron-driven rate coefficients in helium/xenon glows for a variety of He/Xe mixture ratios. The prese nt work was performed in support of research efforts involving plasma display panels. Our Boltzmann calculations do not involve any term-exp ansions of the electron velocity distribution function (EVDF) and, in principle, incorporate the exact EVDF. Legendre decompositions of our complete EVDFs suggest that the more common two-term approximation met hods may be unreliable for the determination of certain rates in gas m ixtures. More generally, this data can be used to provide the rate and transport coefficients necessary for fluid simulations involving He/X e glows under a limited range of discharge conditions. For each mixtur e ratio considered, polynomial fits to the resulting, steady-state rat e coefficients, electron drift velocities and average energies, as fun ctions of E/N are presented. As expected, the data is very sensitive t o the mixture ratio of the two gas components. (C) 1996 American Insti tute of Physics.