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Ion angular distribution simulation of the Highly Efficient Multistage Plasma Thruster

Part of: Solved and Unsolved problems in Plasma Physics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2017

J. Duras ,
D. Kahnfeld ,
G. Bandelow ,
S. Kemnitz ,
K. Lüskow ,
P. Matthias ,
N. Koch  and
R. Schneider
J. Duras*
Affiliation:
Nuremberg Institute of Technology, D-90489 Nuremberg, Germany Institute of Physics, University of Greifswald, D-17498 Greifswald, Germany
D. Kahnfeld
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics, University of Greifswald, D-17498 Greifswald, Germany
G. Bandelow
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics, University of Greifswald, D-17498 Greifswald, Germany
S. Kemnitz
Affiliation:
Institute of Computer Science, University of Rostock, D-18059 Rostock, Germany
K. Lüskow
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics, University of Greifswald, D-17498 Greifswald, Germany
P. Matthias
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics, University of Greifswald, D-17498 Greifswald, Germany
N. Koch
Affiliation:
Nuremberg Institute of Technology, D-90489 Nuremberg, Germany
R. Schneider
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics, University of Greifswald, D-17498 Greifswald, Germany
*
†Email address for correspondence: julia.duras@th-nuernberg.de
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Abstract

Ion angular current and energy distributions are important parameters for ion thrusters, which are typically measured at a few tens of centimetres to a few metres distance from the thruster exit. However, fully kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are not able to simulate such domain sizes due to high computational costs. Therefore, a parallelisation strategy of the code is presented to reduce computational time. The calculated ion beam angular distributions in the plume region are quite sensitive to boundary conditions of the potential, possible additional source contributions (e.g. from secondary electron emission at vessel walls) and charge exchange collisions. Within this work a model for secondary electrons emitted from the vessel wall is included. In order to account for limits of the model due to its limited domain size, a correction of the simulated angular ion energy distribution by the potential boundary is presented to represent the conditions at the location of the experimental measurement in $1~\text{m}$ distance. In addition, a post-processing procedure is suggested to include charge exchange collisions in the plume region not covered by the original PIC simulation domain for the simulation of ion angular distributions measured at $1~\text{m}$ distance.

Keywords

plasma applicationsplasma simulation
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 83 , Issue 1 , February 2017 , 595830107
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2017 

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