Self Consistent Modeling of Free Electron Kinetics

Abstract

We show the fundamentals of non-equilibrium modeling of the electron kinetics in rarefied molecular gases, under the action of both the self-consistent electric field and the vibrational kinetics of molecules. In these conditions the electron energy distribution function is far from the local equilibrium one, and furthermore it cannot be calculated separately from the vibrational manifold. As an example it is illustrated a self-consistent one dimensional model for an electric discharge in nitrogen, realized by coupling a Particle-in-Cell electron/ion dynamics including Monte Carlo scattering on molecules and a simplified vibrational kinetics of nitrogen.