ON THE FRACTAL STRUCTURE OF ELECTRON AVALANCHES

Abstract

The motion of electrons in helium gas in the presence of a homogeneous external electric field was studied. Moving between the two electrodes, the electrons participate in elastic and inelastic collision processes with gas atoms. In ionizing collisions, secondary electrons are also created and in this way self-similar electron avalanches build up. The statistical distribution of the fractal dimension and electron multiplication of electron avalanches was obtained based on the simulation of a large number of electron avalanches. The fractal dimension shows a power-law dependence on electron multiplication with an exponent of ≈0.33.