Flux and reactive contributions to electron transport in methane

A previously developed theoretical analysis (Nolan et al. 1997) is applied to the study of electron transport in methane for reduced electric fields i n the range 1 to 1000 Td. The technique of analysis identifies the flux and reactive components of the measurable transport, without resort to the two -term approximation. A comparison of the results of the Monte Carlo method with those of a multiterm Boltzmann equation analysis (Ness and Robson 1986 ) shows good agreement. The sensitivity of the modelled electron transport to post-ionisation energy partitioning is studied by comparison of three io nisation energy partitioning regimes at moderate (300 Td) and high (1000 Td ) values of the reduced electric field.