Collisionless expansion of pulsed radio frequency plasmas. I. Front formation

The dynamics during plasma expansion are studied with the use of a versatile particle-in-cell simulation with a variable neutral gas density profile. The simulation is tailored to a radio frequency plasma expansion experiment [Schroder et al., J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 47(5), 055207 (2014)]. The experiment has shown the existence of a propagating ion front. The ion front features a strong electric field and features a sharp plasma potential drop similar to a double layer. However, the presented results of a first principle simulation show that, in general, the ion front does not have to be entangled with an electric field. The propagating electric field reflects the downstream ions, which stream with velocities up to twice as high as that of the ion front propagation. The observed ion density peak forms due to the accumulation of the reflected ions. The simulation shows that the ion front formation strongly depends on the initial ion density profile and is subject to a wave-breaking phenomenon. Virtual diagnostics in the code allow for a direct comparison with experimental results. Using this technique, the plateau forming in the wake of the plasma front could be indirectly verified in the expansion experiment. Although the simulation considers profiles only in one spatial dimensional, its results are qualitatively in a very good agreement with the laboratory experiment. It can successfully reproduce findings obtained by independent numerical models and simulations. This indicates that the effects of magnetic field structures and tangential inhomogeneities are not essential for the general expansion dynamic. The presented simulation will be used for a detailed parameter study dealt with in Paper II [Schroder et al., Phys. Plasma 23, 013512 (2016)] of this series. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.