Electron heating during discharges driven by thermionic emission

Abstract

The heating of plasma electrons during discharges driven by thermionic emission is studied using one-dimensional particle-in-cell Monte Carlo collisions modeling that self-consistently takes the dependence of the thermionic current on the plasma parameters into account. It is found that at a gas pressure of 102 Pa the electron two-stream instability is excited. As a consequence, the electrostatic plasma wave propagates from the cathode to the anode. The trapping of electrons by this wave contributes noticeably to the heating of the plasma. At a larger gas pressure, this instability is not excited. As a consequence, plasma electrons are heated only because of the generation of energetic electrons in ionization events and the scattering of emitted electrons.