Monte Carlo model for electron degradation in xenon gas

TL;DR

This paper presents a Monte Carlo model for simulating electron degradation in xenon gas, providing analytical yield spectra and key parameters like ionization efficiency and mean energy per ion pair.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel Monte Carlo approach with analytical yield spectra for detailed electron degradation analysis in xenon gas.

Findings

Mean energy per ion pair is 22 eV at 10 keV.

Ionization efficiency is 65% at 10 keV.

Excitation efficiency is 30% at 10 keV.

Abstract

We have developed a Monte Carlo model for studying the local degradation of electrons in the energy range 9-10000 eV in xenon gas. Analytically fitted form of electron impact cross sections for elastic and various inelastic processes are fed as input data to the model. Two dimensional numerical yield spectrum, which gives information on the number of energy loss events occurring in a particular energy interval, is obtained as output of the model. Numerical yield spectrum is fitted analytically, thus obtaining analytical yield spectrum. The analytical yield spectrum can be used to calculate electron fluxes, which can be further employed for the calculation of volume production rates. Using yield spectrum, mean energy per ion pair and efficiencies of inelastic processes are calculated. The value for mean energy per ion pair for Xe is 22 eV at 10 keV. Ionization dominates for incident energies greater than 50 eV and is found to have an efficiency of 65% at 10 keV. The efficiency for the excitation process is 30% at 10 keV.