In this paper, a two-dimensional axisymmetric particle-in-cell plus Monte Carlo collision numerical model is developed to simulate the plasma and electromagnetic characteristics inside the discharge chamber of an ion thruster. This model tracks three major particle types: primary electrons, secondary electrons, and xenon ions. The neutral particles are treated as a background gas, and the collision mechanism between electrons and neutral gas is modeled in detail. Besides the external electric field and magnetic field, the time-varying electromagnetic fields caused by the movement of the charged particles are considered. Compared to the electrostatic model, the electromagnetic model can further study the electromagnetic radiation characteristics of the discharge chamber. The numerical results are presented and discussed, including the particle number density distributions, the particle energy distributions, and the time-varying electromagnetic fields. At last, the influence of the electromagnetic effect on ion dynamics is analyzed.

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A 2D fully kinetic particle-in-cell plus Monte Carlo collision model is developed to simulate the plasma characteristics of the ion thruster discharge chamber. The interaction between charged particles and the dynamic electric field, the confinement of the static magnetic field, and the particle collisions are simulated. The self-similar scaling method, the multigrid method, sub-cycle time, and neutral particle pre-distribution techniques work together to perform the full-particle and full-kinetic simulation. The steady-state results such as particle number, current flows, static magnetic field, electric potential, particle density, and energy distributions are obtained and discussed. Moreover, the plasma generation and transport, the dynamic behavior of neutral particles, and the influence of the gas flow rate on the plasma are analyzed. The density distribution of charged particles indicates that the electrons are strongly constrained by the magnetic field, and the magnetization characteristics are distinguished from that of ions. Neutral particles are heavily ionized and are depleted along the central line, which is consistent with the area with a higher ionization rate. At last, it is found that the energy and density of charged particles are sensitive to the change of the gas flow rate.

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