PIC simulation of kinetic effects of plasma and consequences for physical sputtering

Abstract

Impurities in a fusion plasma device such as carbon, beryllium and tungsten are one of major concerns about performance of the plasma and also engineering design. In simulation codes of impurity transport and redeposition, the physical sputtering yield due to the background plasma is calculated by an empirical model and a Monte Carlo code based on the binary collision model for a plasma without the magnetic field. In this work, kinetic effects of ions in a magnetized plasma on the physical sputtering yield were investigated by using a particle-in-cell simulation code and a sputtering model. An increasing effect of the magnetic field on the yield was found when the field was nearly parallel to the surface. The effect becomes strong when the field is strong and the plasma density is low.