MONTE-CARLO TREATMENT OF THE TRANSPORT OF ELECTRONS IN A GAS INCLUDING ELECTRON-ELECTRON INTERACTIONS

A technique allowing electron-electron collisions to be included toget her with the electron-neutral-species (atom or molecule) collisions in a Monte Carlo simulation is developed for the case of a weakly ionize d gas (ionization degree lower than 10(-4)). The validity of this tech nique is checked by studying the evolution over time of a set of elect rons (in an infinite medium) assuming that they collide only between e ach other. The space variation of the electron energy distribution fun ction and some mean swarm parameters are calculated for a steady-state discharge established between two plane-parallel electrodes. The impo rtance and the effect of the electron-electron collisions in argon are discussed and interpreted for two situations depending on the electro n density at the cathode.