Numerical study on discharge characteristics influenced by secondary electron emission in capacitive RF argon glow discharges by fluid modeling

A one-dimensional(1D) fluid model of capacitive RF argon glow discharges between two parallel-plate electrodes at low pressure is employed. The influence of the secondary electron emission on the plasma characteristics in the discharges is investigated numerically by the model. The results show that as the secondary electron emission coefficient increases,the cycle-averaged electric field has almost no change; the cycle-averaged electron temperature in the bulk plasma almost does not change, but it increases in the two sheath regions; the cycle-averaged ionization rate, electron density, electron current density, ion current density, and total current density all increase. Also, the cycle-averaged secondary electron fluxes on the surfaces of the electrodes increase as the secondary electron emission coefficient increases. The evolutions of the electron flux, the secondary electron flux and the ion flux on the powered electrode increase as the secondary electron emission coefficient increases. The cycle-averaged electron pressure heating, electron Ohmic heating, electron heating, and ion heating in the two sheath regions increase as the secondary electron emission coefficient increases. The cycle-averaged electron energy loss increases with increasing secondary electron emission coefficient.     

二次电子发射和负离子存在时的鞘层结构特性

 建立了包括电子、离子、器壁发射二次电子以及负离子多种成分的等离子体无碰撞鞘层的基本模型,讨论了二次电子发射和负离子对1维稳态等离子体鞘层结构的影响,并且分析了多种成分等离子体鞘层内的二次电子和负离子的相互作用。结果表明：二次电子发射系数的增加和负离子含量的增加,都将导致鞘层的厚度有所减小;二次电子发射系数超过临界发射系数之后,鞘层不再是离子鞘。随着器壁材料二次电子发射系数的增加,鞘层中的负离子密度分布也逐渐增加;负离子的增加,导致二次电子临界发射系数有所增加。另外,在等离子体鞘层中二次电子发射和负离子的存在,也影响着鞘层中电子的放电特性与器壁材料的腐蚀。     

电子温度对霍尔推进器等离子体鞘层特性的影响

采用二维粒子模拟方法研究了霍尔推进器通道中电子温度对等离子体鞘层特性的影响, 讨论了不同电子温度下电子数密度、鞘层电势、电场及二次电子发射系数的变化规律. 结果表明: 当电子温度较低时, 鞘层中电子数密度沿径向方向呈指数下降, 在近壁处达到最小值, 鞘层电势降和电场径向分量变化均较大, 壁面电势维持一稳定值不变, 鞘层稳定性好; 当电子温度较高时, 鞘层区内与鞘层边界处电子数密度基本相等, 而在近壁面窄区域内迅速增加, 壁面处达到最大值, 鞘层电势变化缓慢, 电势降和电场径向分量变化均较小, 壁面电势近似维持等幅振荡, 鞘层稳定性降低; 电子温度对电场轴向分量影响较小; 随电子温度的增大, 壁面二次电子发射系数先增大后减少. 关键词： 霍尔推进器 等离子体鞘层 电子温度 粒子模拟     

Sheath structure in plasma with two species of positive ions and secondary electrons

The properties of a collisionless plasma sheath are investigated by using a fluid model in which two species of positive ions and secondary electrons are taken into account. It is shown that the positive ion speeds at the sheath edge increase with secondary electron emission(SEE) coefficient, and the sheath structure is affected by the interplay between the two species of positive ions and secondary electrons. The critical SEE coefficients and the sheath widths depend strongly on the positive ion charge number, mass and concentration in the cases with and without SEE. In addition, ion kinetic energy flux to the wall and the impact of positive ion species on secondary electron density at the sheath edge are also discussed.     

Heat flow through a plasma sheath in the presence of secondary electron emission from plasma‐wall interaction

The formation of a plasma sheath in front of a negative wall emitting secondary electron is studied by a one‐dimensional fluid model. The model takes into account the effect of the ion temperature. With the secondary electron emission (SEE ) coefficient obtained by integrating over the Maxwellian electron velocity distribution for various materials such as Be, C, Mo, and W, it is found that the wall potential depends strongly on the ion temperature and the wall material. Before the occurrence of the space‐charge‐limited (SCL ) emission, the wall potential decreases with increasing ion temperature. The variation of the sheath potential caused by SEE affects the sheath energy transmission and impurity sputtering yield. If SEE is below SCL emission , the energy transmission coefficient always varies with the wall materials as a result of the effect of SEE , and it increases as the ion temperature is increased. By comparison of with and without SEE , it is found that sputtering yields have pronounced differences for low ion temperatures but are almost the same for high ion temperatures.     

霍尔推进器中磁化二次电子对鞘层特性的影响

为进一步研究霍尔推进器壁面二次电子发射对推进器性能的影响,采用流体模型数值模拟了二次电子磁化效应的等离子体鞘层特性.得到二次电子磁化鞘层的玻姆判据.讨论了不同的磁场强度和方向、二次电子发射系数以及不同种类等离子体推进器的鞘层结构.结果表明:随器壁二次电子发射系数的增大,鞘层中粒子密度增加,器壁电势升高,鞘层厚度减小;鞘层电势及粒子密度随着磁场强度和方位角的增加而增加;而对于不同种类的等离子体,壁面电势和鞘层厚度也不同.这为霍尔推进器的磁安特性实验提供了理论解释. 关键词： 霍尔推进器 磁鞘 二次电子     

霍尔推进器壁面材料二次电子发射及鞘层特性

霍尔推进器放电通道等离子体与壁面相互作用形成鞘层,不同壁面材料的二次电子发射对推进器鞘层特性具有重要影响,本文针对推进器壁面鞘层区域建立二维物理模型,研究了氮化硼(BN)、碳化硅(SiC)和三氧化二铝(Al_2O_3)三种不同壁面材料的二次电子发射特性,在改进SiC材料二次电子发射模型的基础上,采用粒子模拟方法,讨论了壁面二次电子发射系数与电子温度和磁场强度的关系,研究了三种材料(BN,SiC和Al_2O_3)的鞘层特性,结果表明:修正的二次电子发射模型拟合曲线与实验曲线几乎一致;在相同电子温度下,三种材料(BN,SiC和Al_2O_3)的二次电子发射系数和壁面电子数密度依次增大,而鞘层电场和鞘层电势降依次减小,BN材料具有合适的二次电子发生射系数,使得霍尔推进器能在低电流下稳态工作。     

不同成分等离子体鞘层的玻姆判据

在一维平板鞘层中采用流体模型分别研究了不同成分无碰撞等离子体鞘层的玻姆判据.通过拟牛顿法数值模拟了含有电子、离子、负离子以及二次电子的等离子体鞘层玻姆判据.结果表明二次电子发射增加了鞘层离子马赫数的临界值,且器壁发射二次电子温度越高,离子马赫数临界值越小.负离子使离子马赫数临界值减小.而在含有二次电子和负离子的等离子体鞘层中,当负离子较少时,二次电子发射对离子马赫数临界值影响较大;当负离子增加时,离子马赫数的临界值则主要受负离子的影响. 关键词： 鞘层 等离子体 玻姆判据     

Effects of gas pressure on plasma characteristics in dual frequency argon capacitive glow discharges at low pressure by a self-consistent fluid model

A self-consistent fluid model for dual radio frequency argon capacitive glow discharges at low pressure is established.Numerical results are obtained by using a finite difference method to solve the model numerically, and the results are analyzed to study the effect of gas pressure on the plasma characteristics. It shows that when the gas pressure increases from 0.3 Torr(1 Torr = 1.33322×10~2 Pa) to 1.5 Torr, the cycle-averaged plasma density and the ionization rate increase;the cycle-averaged ion current densities and ion energy densities on the electrodes electrode increase; the cycle-averaged electron temperature decreases. Also, the instantaneous electron density in the powered sheath region is presented and discussed. The cycle-averaged electric field has a complex behavior with the increasing of gas pressure, and its changes take place mainly in the two sheath regions. The cycle-averaged electron pressure heating, electron ohmic heating, electron heating, and electron energy loss are all influenced by the gas pressure. Two peaks of the electron heating appear in the sheath regions and the two peaks become larger and move to electrodes as the gas pressure increases.     

Non‐linear absorption of an intense laser pulse propagating in wiggler‐assisted underdense collisional plasma

In this article, the propagation of an intense laser pulse through underdense collisional plasma in the presence of planar magnetostatic wiggler is studied. It is shown that the electron density distribution, in the presence of planar wiggler with increasing of the normalized plasma length, increases initially and then reaches a peak for different values of wiggler amplitudes. In addition, it is found that the existence of wiggler field leads to an increase in the electron density distribution and subsequently enhancement of electric field. Moreover, it is observed that by increasing the wiggler field, as a result of the increase of the electron density distribution, the dielectric permittivity constant is reduced. It is seen that while wiggler magnetic field was applied appropriately, the total absorption coefficient in the underdense collisional isothermal magnetized plasma improves. In fact, increase of wiggler magnetic field causes the enhancement of the total absorption coefficient of plasma medium.     

Effect of Silane Pressure on Silane-Hydrogen RF Glow Discharges

The intensity and time dependence of optical emission from silane and silane-hydrogen radio-frequency (RF) discharges have been measured as a function of silane pressure (0.05-1.0 torr). The rate of emission of H* and Si* resulting from dissociative excitation was found to decrease with increasing silane pressure in a manner consistent with a similar decrease in average electron energy. Results from a Monte Carlo plasma simulation code were used to compute the rate of optical emission. Comparison of theory and experiment shows good agreement for emission intensities and confirms for discharges operating at constant pressure and power density a decrease in electron density and average electron energy with increasing silane partial pressure in mixtures of silane and hydrogen. The time-dependent spatially averaged emission intensity of H* is experimentally nonsymmetric with a shape that is a systematic function of silane partial pressure. This systematic behavior is reproduced by the plasma simulation and is attributed to the change in the dc bias of the powered electrode, which becomes less negative with increasing silane partial pressure.     

Simulation of electron behavior in PIG ion source for 9 MeV cyclotron

In this paper, we focus on a PIG source for producing intense H-ions inside a 9 MeV cyclotron. The properties of the PIG ion source were simulated for a variety of electric field distributions and magnetic field strengths using a CST particle studio. After analyzing the secondary electron emission (SEE) as a function of both magnetic and electric field strengths, we found that for the modeled PIG geometry, a magnetic field strength of 0.2 T provided the best results in terms of the number of secondary electrons. Furthermore, at 0.2 T, the number of secondary electrons proved to be greatest regardless of the cathode potential. Also, the modified PIG ion source with quartz insulation tubes was tested in a KIRAMS-13 cyclotron by varying the gas flow rate and arc current, respectively. The capacity of the designed ion source was also demonstrated by producing plasma inside the constructed 9 MeV cyclotron. As a result, the ion source is verified as being capable of producing an intense H^- beam and high ion beam current for the desired 9 MeV cyclotron. The simulation results provide experimental constraints for optimizing the strength of the plasma and final ion beam current at a target inside a cyclotron.     

Use of the BFCPIC and BFCRAY codes to describe space charge limited emission in electron guns for gyrotrons

Numerical modelling of an electron gun in the space charge limited regime requires determining the current density distribution as well as the electric fields and electron trajectories. This is a rather complicated self-consistent problem, since the space charge influences the electric field, which in turn influences the electron trajectories. Previous simulations of magnetron electron guns using the BFCPIC and BFCRAY codes used a simple emission model (constant current density) that is approximately valid for thermionic emission. The code has been modified to include space charge limited emission. Several different ways of doing this are considered. One of the models considered uses Gauss’s law to force the electric field on the emitter to vanish; it was used in the original version of BFCPIC for the simulation of ion diodes. A second is based on the use of Child’s law (locally), which may be more appropriate for extension to fully electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) codes. Calculations were performed with both models, and the results compared with each other and with experiments performed at FZK.     

Plasma-wall interactions in DC discharges and sheath of Langmuir probes

The plasma-wall interactions in various DC discharges and sheath of Langmuir probe are analyzed and discussed. The methods of their investigations are discussed including fluid and PIC MC. Various assumptions used in fluid models e.g. plasma neutrality, Bohm criterion, Boltzmann electrons approximation, etc. are analyzed. Ion heating and electron cooling effect at the DC plasma wall is discussed and explained. Langmuir probes measurements in high-temperature and ion thruster plasma are analyzed. The secondary electron emission influences the IV characteristic of Langmuir probe especially at positive voltages. However, only elastic reflection processes really contribute significantly to the probe current. The elastic SEE processes reflect electrons from probe with the same relatively high speed. It was observed that the axial magnetic field influences probe characteristics and floating potential more significantly than radial field. The axial field deflects all electrons approaching probe.     

The voltage-pulsing effects in AC plasma display panel

The effect of the voltage pulsing is simulated in AC plasma display panel using various two-dimensional simulation codes. The volume-averaged density increases rapidly because of the large electric field in the AC-plasma display panel cell as the peak voltage is raised. The ignition time and the decaying time of the discharge are related to the external voltage. The space and time variations of the charged particle densities and the potential profile are described for various voltage forms. The ion energy distribution near the cathode-side dielectric which plays an important role in the MgO lifetime and the secondary electron emission coefficient is concentrated to much lower energies than the applied voltage     

Secondary electron emission yield from vertical graphene nanosheets by helicon plasma deposition

The secondary electron emission yields of materials depend on the geometries of their surface structures.In this paper,a method of depositing vertical graphene nanosheet(VGN)on the surface of the material is proposed,and the secondary electron emission(SEE)characteristics for the VGN structure are studied.The COMSOL simulation and the scanning electron microscope(SEM)image analysis are carried out to study the secondary electron yield(SEY).The effect of aspect ratio and packing density of VGN on SEY under normal incident condition are studied.The results show that the VGN structure has a good effect on suppressing SEE.     

The effects of a small transverse magnetic field upon acapacitively coupled RF discharge

A capacitively-coupled RF argon discharge at a pressure of 10 mTorr with a plate separation of 7.5 cm has been studied both experimentally and using a one-dimensional particle in cell simulation with Monte Carlo collisions. A magnetic field of 0 to 60 G is applied in the direction parallel to the capacitor plates. In the simulation it was found that as the magnetic field was increased such that the electron cyclotron orbit radius of the hot electrons became smaller than of the order of the discharge length, the electron heating in the bulk of the discharge increased. The dominant electron heating mechanism was observed to change from a stochastic sheath to a bulk ohmic electron heating mode, with a variation of field from a to 10 G. This was accompanied by a drop in the plasma density at small magnetic fields, which was also observed experimentally. At higher magnetic fields the plasma density was found to increase, A detailed discussion of the simulation results is presented drawing comparisons with the experimental results, with which there is good agreement, and a simple magnetohydrodynamic model for the bulk heating     

Influence of charge deposition in a field-emission display panel

Field-emission displays (FEDs) have been studied intensively in recent years as a candidate for flat-display panels in the future. In a FED, electrons emit from field emitters. Some electrons may impinge on the insulator surface between cathode and gate electrodes and cause charging of that surface because the yield of secondary electron emission is usually not equal to one. The charging of the insulator walls between cathode and gate electrodes is one of the important factors influencing the performance of a FED. In this paper, a simulation program is used to calculate this charge deposition, electric field distribution and electron trajectories. From the change of the electric field upon charge deposition in the triode region, it is shown that the insulator surface is negatively charged at a low gate voltage, e.g. 20 V. However, positive charge is deposited when the gate voltage is high, e.g. 100 V. The simulations also show that the emission current will increase even further after coating the dielectric with a thin film of a material with a high-secondary emission coefficient such as MgO. If a cone-shaped dielectric aperture is used in a triode, the emission current will decrease after charge deposition. However, the focus performance of the electron beam is improving in this case.     

高功率微波输出窗内侧击穿动力学的PIC/MCC模拟研究

高功率微波在受控热核聚变加热、微波高梯度加速器、高功率雷达、定向能武器、超级干扰机及冲击雷达等方面有着重要的应用.本文针对高功率微波输出窗内侧氩气放电击穿过程,建立了二次电子倍增和气体电离的一维空间分布、三维速度分布（1D3V）模型,并开发了相应的PIC/MC程序代码.研究了气压、微波频率、微波振幅对放电击穿的影响.结果表明：在真空情况下,介质窗放电击穿只存在二次电子倍增过程;在低气压和稍高气压时,二次电子倍增和气体电离共存;在极高气压时,气体电离占主导.给出了不同气压下电子、离子的密度和静电场的空间分布.此外还观察到,在500 mTorr时,随着微波振幅或微波频率的变化,气体电离出现的时刻和电离产生的等离子体峰值位置有较大差异,尤其是当微波频率（GHz）在数值上是微波振幅（MV/m）的2倍时,气体电离出现的较早.     

On characteristics of sheath damping near a dielectric wall with secondary electron emission

A preliminary investigation is conducted to study the characteristics of sheath damping near a dielectric wall with secondary electron emission (SEE). Making use of the linear analysis of the sheath stability, we have found two major contributions to the sheath damping, one similar to the Landau damping in uniform plasmas and another determined by local electric field and electron density of the steady-state sheath. It indicates that in a classical sheath regime the damping in the sheath region monotonically increases towards the wall and decreases with the enhancement of SEE effect. In order to verify the theoretical analysis, sheath oscillation processes induced by an initial disturbance are simulated with a time-dependent one-dimensional (1D) sheath model. Numerical results obtained are consistent with the theoretical analysis qualitatively.