Model Calculations of Negative Differential Conductivity in Gases

Abstract

Negative differential conductivity in gases has been studied using simple models of elastic and inelastic collision cross sections for electron scattering. The use of such models has demonstrated features of the cross sections that lead to the phenomenon, and shown that it can occur without a Ramsauer–Townsend minimum (and even without a sharply rising momentum-transfer cross section) or a special combination of inelastic cross sections.