The 3D particle-in-cell (PIC) code ONIX (orsay negative ion extraction) is a versatile tool for simulating the formation and extraction of negative hydrogen ions and co-extracted electrons in caesiated negative ion sources. Mandatory for modelling these processes is a self-consistent description of the plasma-wall interface, i.e. the plasma sheath, in the presence of surface emitting charged particles. For simplified test cases, the description of the plasma sheath by ONIX is critically validated. Additionally, a set of numerical parameters for reducing the computational cost while still accurately simulating the sheath are presented. Finally, the updated version of ONIX is applied to the plasma of a negative ion source test facility for the ITER NBI system. Results of basic investigations on the influence of the magnetic fields and the meniscus shape on the extraction of negative ions, co-extraction of electrons and the beamlet quality are presented.
Particle-in-cell (PIC) codes are used since the early 1960s for calculating self-consistently the motion of charged particles in plasmas, taking into account external electric and magnetic fields as well as the fields created by the particles itself. Due to the used very small time steps (in the order of the inverse plasma frequency) and mesh size, the computational requirements can be very high and they drastically increase with increasing plasma density and size of the calculation domain. Thus, usually small computational domains and/or reduced dimensionality are used. In the last years, the available central processing unit (CPU) power strongly increased. Together with a massive parallelization of the codes, it is now possible to describe in 3D the extraction of charged particles from a plasma, using calculation domains with an edge length of several centimeters, consisting of one extraction aperture, the plasma in direct vicinity of the aperture, and a part of the extraction system. Large negative hydrogen or deuterium ion sources are essential parts of the neutral beam injection (NBI) system in future fusion devices like the international fusion experiment ITER and the demonstration reactor (DEMO). For ITER NBI RF driven sources with a source area of 0.9 × 1.9 m and 1280 extraction apertures will be used. The extraction of negative ions is accompanied by the co-extraction of electrons which are deflected onto an electron dump. Typically, the maximum negative extracted ion current is limited by the amount and the temporal instability of the co-extracted electrons, especially for operation in deuterium. Different PIC codes are available for the extraction region of large driven negative ion sources for fusion. Additionally, some effort is ongoing in developing codes that describe in a simplified manner (coarser mesh or reduced dimensionality) the plasma of the whole ion source. The presentation first gives a brief overview of the current status of the ion source development for ITER NBI and of the PIC method. Different PIC codes for the extraction region are introduced as well as the coupling to codes describing the whole source (PIC codes or fluid codes). Presented and discussed are different physical and numerical aspects of applying PIC codes to negative hydrogen ion sources for fusion as well as selected code results. The main focus of future calculations will be the meniscus formation and identifying measures for reducing the co-extracted electrons, in particular for deuterium operation. The recent results of the 3D PIC code ONIX (calculation domain: one extraction aperture and its vicinity) for the ITER prototype source (1/8 size of the ITER NBI source) are presented.
The 3D PIC-MCC code ONIX is dedicated to modeling Negative hydrogen/deuterium Ion (NI) extraction and co-extraction of electrons from radio-frequency driven, low pressure plasma sources. It provides valuable insight on the complex phenomena involved in the extraction process. In previous calculations, a mesh size larger than the Debye length was used, implying numerical electron heating. Important steps have been achieved in terms of computation performance and parallelization efficiency allowing successful massive parallel calculations (4096 cores), imperative to resolve the Debye length. In addition, the numerical algorithms have been improved in terms of grid treatment, i.e., the electric field near the complex geometry boundaries (plasma grid) is calculated more accurately. The revised model preserves the full 3D treatment, but can take advantage of a highly refined mesh. ONIX was used to investigate the role of the mesh size, the re-injection scheme for lost particles (extracted or wall absorbed), and the electron thermalization process on the calculated extracted current and plasma characteristics. It is demonstrated that all numerical schemes give the same NI current distribution for extracted ions. Concerning the electrons, the pair-injection technique is found well-adapted to simulate the sheath in front of the plasma grid.
The negative hydrogen ion current that can be extracted from ion sources for neutral beam heating in fusion experiments can be strongly restricted by the amount of co-extracted electrons and their increase over time, particularly during long pulses (up to 1 h). Models describing the underlying physics of particle extraction from a low-temperature plasma with a high amount of negative ions are essential for identifying measures for reducing and stabilizing the co-extracted electrons. In this work, the 3D PIC-MCC code ONIX (Orsay Negative Ion eXtraction) for the plasma volume around one extraction aperture in the first grid of the extraction system is used for analyzing the effect of the magnetic field configuration on the co-extracted electrons and the extracted negative ions. The magnetic field topology is the result of superimposing two different fields that are perpendicular to each other, the filter field (dominant in the ion source volume) and the electron deflection field (dominant in the extraction system). A parametric study changing the relative intensity of these two fields is performed. It is demonstrated that on the local scale of the simulation, the strength of the filter field does not affect the amount of co-extracted electrons, while a significant reduction of the co-extracted electron current is observed when strengthening the electron deflection field.
In this work we report experimental results obtained on a set of ∼90 nm thick FeRh epitaxial films deposited on MgO (100), MgO (111) and Al 2 O 3 (0001) single crystal substrates. The magnetic characterization was achieved by measuring magnetization curves and ferromagnetic resonance as a function of temperature and orientation of the films with respect to the applied magnetic field. We discuss our results by comparing the characteristics of the antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic transition among FeRh films of the same thickness but exposed to different post-growth annealings, and deposited on substrates of different crystalline orientation. We have found that there is a strong correlation between the strain present in the films and their magnetic behavior, observing that a change in the in-plane stress from compressive to tensile tends to shift the magnetic transition by more than 60 K. The interplay between magnetic and elastic properties was further analyzed by ferromagnetic resonance and we have found that the magnetoelastic component of the anisotropy varies from out-of-plane to in-plane, depending on the substrate. These findings could be of great importance if a precise tuning of the magnetic transition temperature or the magnetic anisotropy is needed for a specific application.
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