Particle-In-Cell simulations of the Ball-pen probe

0349663 - ÚFP 2011 RIV DE eng J - Journal Article
Komm, M. - Adámek, Jiří - Pekárek, Z. - Pánek, Radomír
Particle-In-Cell simulations of the Ball-pen probe.
Contributions to Plasma Physics. Roč. 50, č. 9 (2010), s. 814-818. ISSN 0863-1042. E-ISSN 1521-3986
R&D Projects: GA AV ČR KJB100430901
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z20430508
Keywords : Ball-pen * tokamak * plasma * plasma potential * PIC * simulation * I-V characteristics
Subject RIV: BL - Plasma and Gas Discharge Physics
Impact factor: 1.006, year: 2010
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ctpp.201010137/pdf

In this paper, we present results of Particle-In-Cell simulations of a simplified model of the Ball-pen probe (BPP). The BPP is a probe designed for direct measurements of plasma potential in the scrape-off layer (SOL) of tokamaks. The probe is based on a standard Langmuir theory, which states that when the ratio of ion and electron saturation currents flowing to the probe collector approaches zero, the floating potential of the collector is close to the plasma potential. However, it is unclear whether the Langmuir theory is still valid in such a complex geometry, where the probe tunnel can work as a filter in velocity phase-space and as such violates the Maxwellian distributions of particle velocities. To verify the validity of the theory a simplified model of BPP has been studied using the SPICE2 code.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0189840