This book is about the drift, diffusion, and reaction of ions moving through gases under the influence of an external electric field, the gas temperature, and the number density. While this field was established late in the 19th century, experimental and theoretical studies of ion and electron swarms continue to be important in such varied fields as atomic and molecular physics, aeronomy and atmospheric chemistry, gaseous electronics, plasma processing, and laser physics. This book follows in the rigorous tradition of well-known older books on the subject, while at the same time providing a much-needed overview of modern developments with a focus on theory. Graduate students and researchers new to this field will find this book an indispensable guide, particularly those involved with ion mobility spectrometry and the use of ion transport coefficients to test and improve ab initio ion-neutral interaction potentials. Established researchers and academics will find in this book a modern companion to the classic references.

Presents thorough coverage of the transport properties of ions in gases. Starts from first principles, making this book useful to those new to the field as well as to experts. Describes the motions of ions in gases in electric fields, methods for measuring mobilities and diffusion coefficients, and pitfalls in measuring these quantities. Provides a detailed development of the theory of transport processes in the context of the kinetic theory of gases. Includes relevant experimental techniques and an index to experimental data.

This volume presents the contributions of the participants in the Sixth International Swarm Seminar, held August 2-5, 1989, at the Webb Institute in Glen Cove, New York. The Swarm Seminars are traditionally held as relatively small satellite conferences of the International Conference on the Physics of Electronic and Atomic Collisions (ICPEAC) which occurs every two years. The 1989 ICPEAC took place in New York City prior to the Swarm Seminar. The focus of the Swarm Seminars has been on basic research relevant to understanding the transport of charged particles, mainly electrons and ions, in weakly ionized gases. This is a field that tends to bridge the gap between studies of fundamental binary atomic and molecular collision processes and studies of electrical breakdown or discharge phenomena in gases. Topics included in the 1989 seminar ranged the gamut from direct determinations of charged-particle collision cross sections to use of cross sections and swarm parameters to model the behavior of electrical gas discharges. Although the range of subjects covered was in many respects similar to that of previous seminars, there was an emphasis on certain selected themes that tended to give this seminar a distinctly different flavor. There was, for example, considerable discussion on the meaning of "equilibrium" and the conditions under which nonequilibrium effects become important in the transport of electrons through a gas.