Data from: Electron Populations and Neutralization Process in the Plume of a Gridded Ion Thruster

Data from: Electron Populations and Neutralization Process in the Plume of a Gridded Ion Thruster

Authors: Matteo Guaita, Alberto Marín-Cebrián, Eduardo Ahedo, Mario Merino, Fabrice Cipriani, Käthe Dannenmayer

Contact email: [e-mail]

Date: 15/11/2024

Keywords: Plasma Physics, Plasma Plumes, Gridded Ion Thruster, Cathode, Facility Effects, Particel in Cell

Version: 1.0.0

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.5281/zenodo.14165272

License: This dataset is made available under the Open Data Commons Attribution License

Abstract

This dataset contains the data from the simulations presented in the article submitted for pubblicaiton in the Journal: Plasma Sources Science and Technology (PSST):

"Electron Populations and Neutralization Process in the Plume of a Gridded Ion Thruster"

The data in this repository is the result of several hybrid PIC simulations as described in the reference. For further information on the setup, numerical parameters and physical meaning of the simulations please refer to the article

Dataset description

The simulations that produced the datasets in this repository were run with the full PIC code Picaso. The majority of the data is at steady-state, and has been averaged over the last 7000 simulation time-steps to reduce numerical noise. This averaging has been performed as a first step directly by the code through time-step accumulation techniques, and at a later stage in post-processing by averaging over the last 20 print-outs of the code. The data inside the "time_dependent" folder is instead time-varying.

Data files

Each HDF5 data-group contains the mesh and time coordinates and plasma properties of a specific simulation. In particular, the naming convention is the following:

Ref_planar.hdf5: Contains the results of the "reference planar simulation" presented in Sections III and IV of the article.

2Te_planar.hdf5: Contains the results of the simulation with a doubled electron temperature at the cathode presented in Section V of the article.

2Ie_planar.hdf5: Contains the results of the simulation with a doubled electron current at the cathode presented in Section V of the article.

No_coll_planar.hdf5: Contains the results of the simulation without inelastic electron collisions presented in Section V of the article.

Ref_axisym.hdf5: Contains the results of the non-accelerated axis-symmetric simulation presented in Section VI of the article

fcol_2.5_axisym.hdf5: Contains the results of the axis-symmetric simulation,accelerated by a factor 2.5, presented in Section VI of the article

fcol_5_axisym.hdf5: Contains the results of the axis-symmetric simulation,accelerated by a factor 5, presented in Section VI of the article

fcol_7.5_axisym.hdf5: Contains the results of the axis-symmetric simulation,accelerated by a factor 7.5, presented in Section VI of the article

fcol_10_axisym.hdf5: Contains the results of the axis-symmetric simulation,accelerated by a factor 10, presented in Section VI of the article

In each of these files the data is organized in a series of subfolders:

Electrons_prim: Contains the steady-state properties of primary electrons

Electrons_trap: Contains the steady-state properties of trapped electrons

Ions_fast: Contains the steady-state properties of fast ions (ions injected through the thruster grids)

Ions_slow: Contains the steady-state properties of slow ions (ions produced by collisions in the plume)

Time_dependent: Contains the vector of time-stamps and spatially global data saved at the corresponding time

The data files found in the outer simulation folder are:

xs: Physical x coordinates [cm]

zs: Physical z coordinates [cm]

phi: electric potential [V]

rho_el: space charge density [C/m³]

nn: Total neutral density [1/m³]

The data files for each particle population are:

n: Plasma (ion) density [1/m³]

f_x: Particle flux along x [1/(m² s)]

f_y: Particle flux along y [1/(m² s)]

f_z: Particle flux along z [1/(m² s)]

p_xx: xx component of the pressure tensor [J/m³]

p_yy: yy component of the pressure tensor [J/m³]

p_zz: zz component of the pressure tensor [J/m³]

The data files in the time dependent folder are:

t: Time coordinates [s]

phi_W: Potential of the vacuum chamber walls [V]

phi_max: Maximum value of the potential in the plume [V]

nte_frac: Fraction between the number of trapped electrons and ions in the plume bulk [%]

nu_te_ela: globally averaged trapped electron-neutral elastic collision frequency [Hz]

nu_te_ion: globally averaged trapped electron-neutral ionization collision frequency [Hz]

nu_te_exc: globally averaged trapped electron-neutral excitation collision frequency [Hz]

nu_te_cou: globally averaged trapped electron-neutral Coulomb collision frequency [Hz]

nu_pe_ela: globally averaged primary electron-neutral elastic collision frequency [Hz]

nu_pe_ion: globally averaged primary electron-neutral ionization collision frequency [Hz]

nu_pe_exc: globally averaged primary electron-neutral excitation collision frequency [Hz]

nu_pe_cou: globally averaged primary electron-neutral Coulomb collision frequency [Hz]

Note that all the other quantities shown in the article may be obtained from the ones saved here. We remind here that the gas employed is Xenon and that all ions are considered to be singly charged.

Citation

Any works using this dataset or any part of it in any form shall cite it as follows. The BibTeX entry s provided for convenience:

@dataset{sim_data_guai25b,  author       = {Matteo Guaita and Alberto Marín-Cebrián and Mario Merino and Eduardo Ahedo and Fabrice Cipriani and Käthe Dannenmayer},  title            = {Data from: Electron populations and neutralization process in the plume of a gridded ion thruster},  month       = November,  year            = 2024,  publisher  = {Zenodo},  version      = {1.0.1},  doi              = {10.5281/zenodo.14165272},  url              = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12751281}}

The journal article associated with this data-set shall also be cited as follows:

@article{guai25b,    doi = {10.1088/1361-6595/adc482},    year = {2025},    month = {mar},    publisher = {IOP Publishing},    author = {Matteo Guaita and Alberto Marín-Cebrián and Mario Merino and Eduardo Ahedo and Fabrice Cipriani and Käthe Dannenmayer},    title = {Electron populations and neutralization process in the plume of a gridded ion thruster},    journal = {Plasma Sources Science and Technology },}

Acknowledgments

This work, and the corresponding dataset, has been supported by the ECOMODIS project, funded by the European Space Agency, under contract 4000137869/22/NL/RA