In the present work, the results of the experimental and particle in cell (PIC) simulation studies of the discharge combustion modes in a miniature Penning ion source (PIS) under the pulse-periodic power supply conditions are presented. Dynamics of discharge ignition and discharge operation mode at a pulsed anode voltage supply are investigated for different values of anode voltage and gas pressure in various magnetic field configurations. Typical examples of current pulse waveforms are shown. Also, numerical simulations of the PIS were performed using 3D PIC combined with Monte Carlo collisions in the code VSim. Temporal dependencies of electron, ion, and potential distributions in the Penning cell are simulated. Differences between the numerical and experimental results are discussed.

In this work characteristics of pulsed penning ion source for miniature linear accelerators was investigated by experimental measurements and PIC (Particle-In-Cell) simulations. The paper presents dependences of the discharge current and extracted current on intensities of the uniform magnetic field for different pressure. Also, typical examples of the current pulse waveforms obtained by PIC simulation and experiment for different magnetic field are presented. The simulated electron and ion distributions inside discharge gap give qualitative explanation of the experimentally observed fluctuations in current pulses. These current fluctuations arise as a result of the violation of the electric field axial symmetry due to the electron spoke movement of the towards the anode.

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