Boltzmann Equation Analysis of Electron Transport in a N2–O2 Streamer Discharge

A comprehensive investigation of electron transport in N2–O2 mixtures has been carried out using a multi term theory for solving the Boltzmann equation instead of conventional two term theory often employed in plasma modeling community. We focus on the way in which the transport coefficients and spatially resolved transport data are influenced by the amount of O2 in the mixture. Emphasis is placed upon the explicit and implicit effects of non-conservative collisions, ionization and attachment on various transport coefficients. In particular, the effects of three-body attachment for electrons on various transport data are considered. It is found that the differences between two sets of transport coefficients, bulk and flux, resulting from the explicit influence of non-conservative collisions is sensitive to the quantity of O2 in the mixture. # 2011 The Japan Society of Applied Physics