Non-conservative electron transport in CF4 in electric and magnetic fields crossed at arbitrary angles

Abstract

A Monte Carlo simulation technique is used to investigate electron transport in carbon tetrafluoride (CF4) for an arbitrary configuration of electric and magnetic fields. We investigate the way in which the transport coefficients and other swarm properties are influenced by the electric and magnetic field strengths and the angle between the fields. In addition, the sensitivity of transport data on the presence of non-conservative collisions (attachment/ionization) is analysed. It is found that the difference between the two sets of transport coefficients, bulk and flux, resulting from the explicit effects of non-conservative collisions, can be controlled either by the variation of the magnetic field strengths or by the angles between the fields. This study was initiated in order to obtain the transport data for input into the fluid models of magnetron and inductively coupled plasma discharges as well as several types of high energy particle detectors, and has resulted in a database of such transport data. Values and general trends in the profiles of mean energy, collision frequency, rate coefficients, drift velocity elements and diffusion tensor are reported here.