An Approximate Method for Calculating Kinetic Coefficients of Heavy Ions in He-Containing Mixtures in a Strong Electric Field

Plasma Physics Reports. 2026. Vol. 52. No. 3. P. 367–378.

A. A. Ponomarev, N. L. Aleksandrov

An approximate method for calculating drift velocity and other kinetic coefficients of heavy ions
in a light gas is generalized to gaseous mixtures. Obtained equations are used to calculate the mobilities of
and ions, as well as rate constants for inelastic ion–molecule processes with these ions in helium with
small additions of O2 under an electric field. Calculated results are compared with the results of Monte Carlo
simulation. Simple approximate methods allow good agreement to be reached with more complicated Monte
Carlo simulation when describing the strong effect of small O2 concentrations on the ion kinetic properties
in He and to shorten computational time by orders of magnitude.

Keywords: метод Монте-Карло, Monte Carlo method, тяжелые ионы, heavy ion, константы реакций, отлипание электрона, ion mobility, подвижность ионов, диссоциация молекулярных ионов, rate constants of ion–molecule reactions, dissociation of molecular ions, electron detachment from negative ions