
%0 Journal Article
%A Liley, BS 
%T Space Charge Effects in the Townsend?Huxley Swarm Technique
%J Australian Journal of Physics
%D 1967/10/01
%V 20
%N 5
%P 527-546
%K 
%R https://doi.org/10.1071/PH670527
%U https://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/PH670527 
%X An analytical treatment of space charge effects in the Townsend-Huxley swarm technique is given. The general case of a mixed swarm of equally charged ions and electrons drifting through a gas in which attachment is possible is considered. The case of a pure electron or pure ion swarm is treated as a particular case of the general one. The main result is an expression for R(r,z), this being the ratio of the current collected by a disk of radius r, in the plane z = z, to the total swarm current. This ratio is determined as an explicit function of DIp-, the total current, the electron (or ion) current, and the attachment coefficient. It is shown that space charge effects can be of importance for large currents, low E Ip, and low gas temperatures. Moreover, in practice such effects are only likely to be of interest in thermal swarms. 
