Ionization, electron-attachment and negative-ion reactions in N₂O

Measurement of pre-breakdown ionization currents in N 2 O in uniform fields were made within the range 150*10 -17 <E/N<182*10 -17 V cm 2 (where E is the electric field and N the gas number density) at relatively high pressures corresponding to values of N in the range from 1.66*10 18 to 19.5*10 18 cm -3 . Previous published data were used to postulate a reaction scheme which was used to obtain equations in terms of which the experimental results were analysed. The values of the coefficients representing ionization and attachment obtained from this analysis are given and discussed and the information obtained about the ion-molecule reaction rates is shown to be consistent with earlier data obtained at lower values of E/N.