Electron collision rates and transport coefficients of weakly ionized dc plasma in Ar/SiH4-mixtures

The paper deals with electron kinetics of a Ar/SiH4 dc plasma, using the stationary and spatially uniform Boltzmann equation. The solution of this kinetic equation has been obtained by applying higher order Legendre polynomial expansion of the electron velocity distribution. For varying mixture composition the energy distribution and relevant macroscopic quantities as mean energy, drift velocity, rate coefficients for excitation, dissociation and ionization and relevant energy transfer rates for these processes have been calculated. In particular, it has been found that a most effective activation of the feed gas occurs for SiH4 admixtures in the range from 5 to 10 per cents. (orig.)