Numerical study of electron backscattering in argon and neon-xenon mixtures

Summary form only given. Monte Carlo calculations have been performed to study the backscattering of secondary electrons emitted from the cathode under uniform field conditions in argon and neon-xenon mixtures. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the decrease, due to backscattering of electrons to the cathode, in the secondary electron emission coefficient relative to that measured in beam experiments. The Monte Carlo simulation is standard; electron trajectories are followed in the electric field and collisional effects are simulated using random numbers to select the collision time, the type of collision and the electron velocity after the collision. Typically, a few thousands cathode-emitted electrons are followed in order to get satisfactory statistics.