Date of Award

Spring 1988

Document Type

Thesis

Program/Concentration

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Committee Director

Karl H. Schoenbach

Committee Member

Linda Vahala

Committee Member

Glenn Gerdin

Committee Member

Amin Dharamsi

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.E55C434

Abstract

The strong spatial variation of the electric field intensity in the vicinity of the cathode of a gas discharge requires the use of microscopic methods to describe the nonequilibrium behavior of the electron dynamics in this region. A one-dimensional Monte Carlo code was developed. It allows one to obtain the distribution of the electron drift velocity and rate coefficients for a given electric field intensity in the cathode fall. The results of this calculation are used to find the density distribution of charged particles in this region and consequently, by means of Poisson's equation, a corrected electric field intensity. In order to obtain a self consistent solution for the cathode fall, the described computational process is repeated until a sufficient conformity between subsequently calculated electric field profiles is reached. This iteration procedure gives a solution for the cathode fall distance, the particle and current density distributions in the discharge.

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DOI

10.25777/r5xz-7389

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