Effect of H$_{2}$ and N$_{2}$ Impurities in Argon on the Kinetics of Electrons

The presence of small amounts of gas impurities in argon glow discharges used for optical emission spectrometry (GDOES) has strong implications on the accurate calibration of GDOES. To circumvent these difficulties, the intentional admixture of controlled amounts of H$_{2}$ or N$_{2}$ to argon has been practiced [1]. The understanding of the electron kinetics in these mixtures is valuable for the characterization and calibration of the cell. In this work the electron velocity distribution function, rate coefficients and transport parameters are computed in Ar + xH$_{2}$ and Ar + xN$_{2}$ mixtures, with 0{\%} $\le $ x $\le $ 10{\%}, for pulsed Townsend discharge conditions. Different computational techniques are used: a classical two-term expansion, a modified finite elements method applied to the density gradients representation, and a Monte Carlo simulation at the same discharge conditions. Two different set of cross sections for H$_{2}$ are used [2,3], allowing a comparison between them. \newline [1] Hodoroaba \textit{et al.} J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 18, 521 (2003) \newline [2] [http://jilawww.colorado.edu/$\sim $avp] \newline [3] Loureiro \textit{et al.} J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. \textbf{22} 1680 (1989)