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A parametric study is conducted to quantify the effect of the keeper electrode geometry on the neutral flow quantities within orificed hollow cathodes, prior to cathode ignition. The keeper impinges directly on the flow out of the cathode orifice and its geometry strongly influences the product between the pressure in the orifice-keeper region and the distance between cathode and keeper, $P_{ko}\cdot D_{ko}$, a key parameter for successful cathode ignition. A representative cathode equipped with a keeper is simulated using the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo method. The numerical model is first validated with computational results from the literature, and a parametric study is then conducted. Parameters include the cathode pressure-diameter in the range of 1-5 Torr-cm and the following geometric ratios: cathode orifice-to-cathode inner radii in the range of 0.1-0.7, keeper orifice-to-cathode orifice radii in the range of 1-5, and keeper distance-to-cathode-orifice diameter, in the range of 0.5-10. If both keeper and cathode have identical orifice radii, the flow remains subsonic in the cathode orifice-to-keeper region. In most cases, however, the flow becomes underexpanded and supersonic, and the static pressure within the cathode orifice-keeper region is, on average, 4% that of the upstream pressure value. The orifice-keeper region pressure increases with either a decrease in the keeper orifice diameter or an increase in the distance between the cathode orifice plate and the keeper plate, in agreement with literature data. Trends are explained through control-volume-based conservation laws. The ratio of ignition-to-nominal mass flow rates is found to be in the range of 9-120, with a most probable value of 40, in agreement with literature data. This suggests that heater-less cathode ignition at a minimum DC voltage may be achieved by increasing the input mass flow rate by a factor of 40., Comment: 25 pages, 27 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to Journal of Applied Physics

In this study, we conduct 2D3V Particle-In-Cell simulations of hollow cathodes, encompassing both the channel and plume region, with an emphasis on plasma switch applications. The plasma in the hollow cathode channel can exhibit kinetic effects depending on how fast electrons emitted from the insert are thermalized via Coulomb collisions. The criterion that determines whether the plasma operates in a Duid or kinetic regime is given as follows. When Coulomb collisions occur at a much greater rate than ionization or excitation events, the Electron Energy Distribution Function relaxes to aMaxwellian distribution and the plasmawithin the channel can be describedwith aDuidmodel. In contrast, if inelastic processes are much faster, then the Electron Energy Distribution Function in the channel exhibits a notable high-energy tail, and a kinetic treatment is required. This criterion is applied to other kinds of hollow cathodes from the literature, revealing that a Duid approach is suitable for most electric propulsion applications, whereas a kinetic treatment might be necessary for plasma switches. Additionally, amomentumbalance reveals that a diffusion equation is sufAcient to predict the plasma plume expansion, a crucial input in the design of hollow cathodes for plasma switch applications.

The process of numerical thermalization in particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations has been studied extensively. It is analogous to Coulomb collisions in real plasmas, causing particle velocity distributions (VDFs) to evolve towards a Maxwellian as macroparticles experience polarization drag and resonantly interact with the fluctuation spectrum. This paper presents a practical tutorial on the effects of numerical thermalization in 2D PIC applications. Scenarios of interest include simulations which must be run for many thousands of plasma periods and contain a population of cold electrons that leave the simulation space very slowly. This is particularly relevant to many low temperature plasma discharges and materials processing applications. We present numerical drag and diffusion coefficients and their associated timescales for a variety of grid resolutions, discussing the circumstances under which the electron VDF is modified by numerical thermalization. Though the effects described here have been known for many decades, direct comparison of analytically derived, velocity-dependent numerical relaxation timescales to those of other relevant processes has not often been applied in practice due to complications that arise in calculating thermalization rates in 1D simulations. Using these comparisons, we estimate the impact of numerical thermalization in several example low temperature plasma applications including capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) discharges, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) discharges, beam plasmas, and hollow cathode discharges. Finally, we discuss possible strategies for mitigating numerical relaxation effects in 2D PIC simulations.