Continuum Kinetic Simulations of Plasma Sheaths and Instabilities

Abstract

A careful study of plasma-material interactions is essential to understand and improve the operation of devices where plasma contacts a wall. Key contributions of this work include (i) novel continuum kinetic algorithms with novel boundary conditions that directly discretize the Vlasov/Boltzmann equation using the discontinuous Galerkin method, (ii) fundamental studies of a plasma sheath physics with collisions, ionization, and physics-based wall emission, and (iii) theoretical and numerical studies of the linear growth and nonlinear saturation of the kinetic Weibel instability, including its role in plasma sheaths. The continuum kinetic algorithm has been shown to compare well with theoretical predictions of Landau damping of Langmuir waves and the two-stream instability. Benchmarks are also performed using the electromagnetic Weibel instability and excellent agreement is found between theory and simulation. The role of the electric field is significant during nonlinear saturation of the Weibel instability, which was not noted in previous studies. A focus is put on understanding plasma sheath physics which is essential for studying plasma-material interactions. Initial simulations are performed using a collisionless model to match classical sheath theory and the Bohm criterion. A collision operator and volumetric physics-based source terms are introduced and effects of heat flux are briefly discussed. Novel physics-based boundary conditions are developed and included in a general manner with the continuum kinetic algorithm for bounded plasma simulations. These are the first continuum kinetic simulations using self-consistent, wall emission boundary conditions with broad applicability across a variety of regimes.