Thermal Region in Ion Transport Characteristics

Abstract

Transport coefficients and velocity distributions of ions in gas under an electric field of a wide range are analysed using the flight time integral (FTI) method. A thermal region where the ion transport almost solely depends on the thermal motion of gas is clearly found in a range of low reduced field E⁄N, while characteristics dependent only on E⁄N are observed in the high E⁄N range. Understanding of the ion transport property in the thermal region and the temperature dependence will be important for the derivation of interaction potentials between ion and neutrals.