1D-3v PIC-MCC Based Modeling and Simulation of Magnetized Low-Temperature Plasmas

Abstract

Abstract Accurate investigation of the physics of magnetized Low-Temperature Plasmas (LTP) involving drifts and instabilities is a challenging task. Electrons in such plasmas are magnetized, whereas ions are not completely magnetized. Presence of different collision mechanisms due to high neutral density (compared to plasma density), and in homogeneous magnetic fields, leads to complex plasma transport involving several time and length scales. Although computationally expensive, simulation of such plasmas using a kinetic model is the best way to improve the current understanding of such systems. In this paper, we present a 1D-3V Particle-In-cell Monte-Carlo collision (PIC-MCC) based simulations of such plasmas, wherein the ROBIN negative ion source (consisting of an LTP source with a magnetic filter) installed at IPR, Gandhinagar is taken as a testbed problem for the validation of the model. Results from our 1D-3V model provide a good match with the available experimental results from ROBIN. Finally, we conclude the paper by summarizing the limitations of our 1D simulations and the requirement of more accurate 2D simulations in such scenarios.KeywordsPIC-MCCLow-temperature plasmaNegative ion sourceMagnetized plasmaPlasma transport across magnetic field