Two-dimensional computer experiments on ion- beam neutralization

Brauch, D. F.; Buneman, O.; Wadhwa, R.P.

doi:10.2514/3.3057

Cited by 16 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Earlier theoretical and simulations models have considered the neutralization of infinitively large uniform ion beam [2,3,4,5,6]. More recent models have considered a more realistic setting for finite size ion beam emission [7,8,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kinetic Simulations of Ion Beam Neutralization

Chang

Wang

2011

AIP Conference Proceedings

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Full particle PIC simulations are performed to study the neutralization of an ion beam in the cohesionless, mesothermal regime. Simulations further confirmed that neutralization is achieved through interactions between the trapped electrons and the potential well established by the propagation of the beam front along the beam direction and is not through plasma instabilities as previous studies suggested. In the transverse direction, the process is similar to that of the expansion of mesothermal plasma into vacuum. Parametric simulations are also performed to investigate the effects of beam radius and domain boundary condition on the neutralization process. The results suggests that, while the qualitative behavior may be similar in ground tests, quantitative parameters such as the beam potential will be affected significantly by the vacuum chamber because of the limits imposed on the expansion process by the finite chamber space.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kinetic Simulations of Ion Beam Neutralization

Chang

Wang

2011

AIP Conference Proceedings

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“…Ion thruster beam neutralization has been a subject of extensive modeling and theoretical studies [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. The standard method for kinetic simulations of a collisionless plasma is Particle-in-Cell (PIC).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since the electron dynamics play a dominant role in the process, a simulation study of ion beam neutralization requires the full particle PIC approach where both the electrons and ions are modeled as macro-particles. Early simulation studies of ion beam neutralization considered an infinitely large and uniform beam with thermal electrons premixed with the ions [2][3][4][5][6] and suggested that plasma micro-instabilities and wave-particle interactions may be the driving mechanism for beam neutralization. Recently, several two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) full particle PIC simulations considered the emission of a finite size mesothermal plasma plume.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulations of Ion Thruster Beam Neutralization Using a Particle–Particle Model

Zhao

Wang

Usui

2018

Journal of Propulsion and Power

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A Particle-Particle (PP) model is developed to simulate ion thruster beam neutralization by thermal electrons emitted from a neutralizer located outside of the ion beam. Simulations are carried out using the real xenon to electron mass ratio. The results show that beam neutralization is initiated by an electron-ion mixing process in which the thermal electrons are trapped by the potential well in the ion beam and undergo an oscillation between the ion beam boundaries both along the beam direction and in the radial direction. The bouncing of the electrons in the radial direction generates transient oscillating perturbations inside the beam in both electron density and the electric field in the radial direction which eventually dissipate when the electrons are thermalized and the ion beam is neutralized. The PP method directly utilizes the Coulomb's law to calculate the electrostatic force between particles and thus eliminates the constraints on mesh resolution and domain size of the Particle-in-Cell (PIC) method. This method can be advantageous computationally when applied to simulations of very non-uniform, collisionless plasmas such as the plasma plume near ion thruster exit.

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Motion of Many Interacting Particles—the Lagrangian Model

Dunn¹

1971

Models of Particles and Moving Media

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Two-dimensional computer experiments on ion- beam neutralization

Cited by 16 publications

References 9 publications

Kinetic Simulations of Ion Beam Neutralization

Kinetic Simulations of Ion Beam Neutralization

Simulations of Ion Thruster Beam Neutralization Using a Particle–Particle Model

Motion of Many Interacting Particles—the Lagrangian Model

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