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Measurements of thermal electron attachment rate coefficients to molecules using an electron swarm technique

  • Plasmas and High Pressure Measurements
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Abstract.

An existing electron swarm apparatus has been redesigned and upgraded. In particular, the new design incorporates a novel planar radioactive foil to form an integral part of the drift tube, allowing us to overcome inherent problems present in our earlier system which used a cylindrical radioactive source. In addition to this, substantial upgrades have been made to improve the gating and amplification electronics and the data acquisition system. This has resulted in a much greater signal to noise ratio and improved accuracy. This paper describes the upgraded apparatus and its use in obtaining thermal (300 K) attachment rate coefficients to a number of molecules. The quality of the measurements and data are illustrated through the measurement of the thermal attachment rate coefficient for SF6 (kth(SF6) = (2.38 ±0.15 ) ×10 -7 cm3 s-1). Thermal electron attachment rate coefficients for four other molecules are presented, namely for two derivatives of SF6, SF5CF3 and SF5Cl, and two perfluorocarbons, c-C4F8 and 2-C4F8.

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Mayhew, C., Critchley, A., Howse, D. et al. Measurements of thermal electron attachment rate coefficients to molecules using an electron swarm technique. Eur. Phys. J. D 35, 307–312 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2005-00087-7

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