Electron drift velocity in silane in strong electric fields determined from rf breakdown curves

We report measurements of the breakdown curves of an rf capacitive discharge in low pressure silane. The electron drift velocity was determined from the locations of the turning point and of the minimum in the breakdown curves in the range E/p ≤ 145-1292 V cm^-1 Torr^-1. We compare our results to values calculated from the published cross-sections in the range E/p ≤ 1-2000 V cm^-1 Torr^-1 and data calculated in other papers and find good agreement.