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A propagator method (PM), a numerical technique to solve the Boltzmann equation (BE) for the electron velocity or energy distribution function (EVDF/EEDF) of electron swarms in gases, was customized to obtain the equilibrium solution quickly. The PM calculates the number of electrons in cells defined in velocity space using an operator called the propagator or Green’s function. The propagator represents the intercellular transfer of electrons corresponding to the electron velocity change due to the acceleration by the electric field and the collisional events with gas molecules. The relaxation of the EVDF to its drift equilibrium solution proceeds with iterative propagator operations for the EVDF. Merits of the PM are that the series expansion of the EVDF as done in the BE analyses is not required and that time evolution of the electron swarm can be observed if necessary. On the other hand, in case only the equilibrium solution of the EVDF is wanted, the relaxation can be accelerated numerically. A demonstration achieved a shortening of the computational time by about three orders of magnitude. Furthermore, this scheme was applied to calculations of a set of electron transport parameters required in fluid-model simulations, i.e. the effective ionization frequency, the centroid drift velocity and the longitudinal diffusion coefficient, using the zeroth-, first- and second-order moment equations derived from the BE. A detailed description on the PM calculation was presented.
Hirotake Sugawara (Wed,) studied this question.