Understanding In-Chamber Plasma Behavior Using a Dimensionally Scaled Gridded Ion Thruster in Three-Dimensional Kinetic Particle-in-Cell Simulations

TL;DR

This study uses 3D kinetic simulations to analyze how facility conditions affect a scaled gridded ion thruster's plasma behavior, emphasizing the importance of inelastic electron cooling and background pressure on beam properties and wall interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive 3D PIC-MCC/DSMC simulation approach to study facility effects on ion thruster plumes, highlighting the role of inelastic processes and background pressure in plasma dynamics.

Findings

Inelastic electron cooling is crucial for beam neutralization.

Higher background pressure increases ion-neutral collisions, reducing ion energies.

Sheath models underpredict sheath length due to residual electrons.

Abstract

We investigate facility effects on a reduced-scale gridded ion thruster plume using a fully kinetic, three-dimensional Particle-in-Cell/Monte Carlo Collision (PIC-MCC) solver coupled with a Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) neutral background. This approach enables detailed examination of key plasma processes governing beam neutralization and wall interactions under ground-test conditions. We find that inelastic electron cooling is essential for achieving a physically consistent, neutralized beam. Increasing the background pressure enhances ion-neutral collisions, leading to more charge- and momentum-exchange events that reduce ion mean energies, broaden the beam, and increase sidewall losses. Including inelastic processes flattens the potential, sustains quasi-neutrality, and preserves beam collimation farther downstream. Single-particle trajectory analyses show that primary electrons undergo mixed escape and temporary trapping, while low energy post-inelastic electrons remain confined, sustaining the neutralization cloud. Sheath diagnostics reveal that at the beam dump, classical Child-Langmuir and Hutchinson models underpredict the sheath length due to residual electrons, while near the sidewall, the sheath is truncated by beam-sheath interference within the compact domain. Current-flow analysis indicates that higher background pressure conditions yield lower beam energies and increased sidewall currents.