Transport coefficients and cross sections for electrons in N2O and N2O/N2 mixtures

A standard swarm analysis of electron scattering cross sections in nitrous oxide (N2O) is presented. The experimental results for drift velocities and effective ionization coefficients (differences between the ionization and attachment coefficients), obtained over an extended range of E/N (electric field normalized to the gas number density) by the pulsed-Townsend technique, are compared with the numerical solution of the Boltzmann equation. Our analysis shows that commonly used sets of cross sections have to be modified in order to fit the new experimental data, in particular the dissociative cross sections for attachment and electronic excitation (with a threshold energy of around 4.0 eV). Using a single set of cross sections it was possible to fit both the data for pure N2O and those for the N2O/N-2 mixtures with 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% N2O.