Kinetic simulation of a source dominated plasma-wall interaction in an oblique magnetic field

The strongly inhomogeneous region of plasma-wall interaction in the presence of an oblique magnetic field, exhibits many complexities in its kinetic behavior. The normal flows develop due to the presence of strong E x B drift and its shear. Other kinetic features present in such systems include open orbits, orbits trapped against the wall and orbits that are strongly deformed due to the strong electric fields present near the sheath edge. Such effects need to be modeled kinetically for the exact boundary conditions at the entrance of plasma boundary layer [J. Phys. D 24 (1991) 493]. In the present work, an extensive kinetic simulation of region of magnetized plasma-wall interaction, sustained self-consistently by a Maxwellian source is done. The singular behavior of kinetic equation in the small parallel electric-field region [Comm. Plasma Phys. Control. Fus. 16(1995) 255] is handled by incorporating a weak collisionality in the ions. A spatially resolved three-dimensional ion velocity distribution function is calculated on a regularly spaced velocity space grid, utilizing the time reversibility of characteristics of the Boltzmann equation inside the region of interaction. It is observed that the normal flow indeed develops from a parallel flow because of the shear in E x B flow in case of an oblique incidence. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.