Transport coefficients for electrons in argon in crossed electric and magnetic rf fields

Monte Carlo simulations of electron transport have been performed in crossed electric and magnetic rf fields in argon. It was found that a magnetic field strongly affects electron transport, producing complex behaviour of the transport coefficients that cannot be predicted on the basis of dc field theory. In particular, it is important that a magnetic field, if it has sufficiently high amplitude, allows energy gain from the electric field only over a brief period of time, which leads to a pulse of directed motion and consequently to cyclotron oscillations being imprinted on the transport coefficients. Furthermore, this may lead to negative diffusion. The behaviour of drift velocities is also interesting, with a linear (sawtooth) dependence for the perpendicular drift velocity and bursts of drift for the longitudinal. Non-conservative effects are, on the other hand, reduced by the increasing magnetic field.