Visualization of ion and electron velocity distribution functions in electric and magnetic fields

Abstract

The Boltzmann equation for ions and electrons in gases subject to arbitrarily oriented electric and magnetic fields is solved by a recently developed unified 'multiterm' theory (White et al 1999a), and attention is focused on portrayal of the velocity distribution function. In particular, we take 'slices' in velocity space to elucidate the effects of changing orientation angle, magnetic field strength and the ion to gas molecule mass ratio. The first results for electrons in CO2 and ion swarms in electric and magnetic fields are presented in this way. The implications of symmetries are discussed.