Title: Lsp Simulations of RF and BeamDriven Breakdown in Hydrogen
1Lsp Simulations of RF and Beam-Driven Breakdown
in Hydrogen
- D. V. Rose, C. Thoma, D. R. Welch, and R. E.
Clark - Voss Scientific, LLC
- Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108
Low Emittance Muon Collider Workshop,
FermiLabApril 21-25, 2008
Work supported by Muons, Inc. (with a special
thank you to Rolland Johnson)
2Outline
- Lsp simulation code
- Particle-in-cell model description
- MCC model
- Computational representations of the H2 breakdown
experiment - 0D model results for H2
- Comparison with RF breakdown experiment
- Addition of SF6
- Impact ionization of gas due to H beam
- Addition of SF6
- 1D model
- Sample RF breakdown calculation
- Sample beam-driven and RF breakdown calculation
- Discussion
- Additional physics (1D electrode emission models,
realistic beam emittance, etc) - Extension to 2D models (computational
constraints, scaling) - Summary
3Lsp is a general purpose particle-in-cell (PIC)
code
- A number of electromagnetic (explicit and
implicit), electrostatic, and magnetostatic field
solvers are implemented - Kinetic and fluid particle descriptions are
available - 1, 2, and 3 physical dimensions Cartesian,
cylindrical, and spherical coordinate systems - Lsp has been used successfully for a number of
accelerator and pulsed power applications - LTD drivers Sandia National Labs (SNL) LTDR,
6-MV facility - Heavy ion accelerators LBNL NDCX I II
- IVA accelerators SNL RITS-3, RITS-6, AWE Hydros,
Darht - and plasma physics applications
- Ion beam sources
- Laser-plasma, laser-material interactions
- Electron beam diodes for x-ray radiography and
pumping excimer lasers - Charged particle beam propagation
- EMP applications
- Magnetic confinement of plasmas
- Wave-wave and wave-particle interactions,
instabilities - Moderately and strongly-coupled plasmas
4PIC code model
- Charged and neutral plasma species are treated
macro-particles, each representing 10x real
particles. (x can be greater than 10!) - EM fields are determined from Maxwells
equations, solved on a finite grid, with source
terms provided by particle charge densities
and/or currents mapped onto the grid. - Particle motion governed by fields interpolated
from grid to particle positions (typically
second-order accurate)
See C. Birdsall and A. Langdon, Plasma Physics
via Computer Simulation and R. Hockney and J.
Eastwood, Computer Simulation Using Particles
5Physical Model the Test Cell (TC)
B0
400 MeV H-
2.5 cm
5 cm
3 cm
11.4 cm
RF Power Feed
60D, 1D, and 2D simulation models
Idealized region between electrodes, independent
ofspatial gradients and physicalboundaries, but
cantreat transient effects (RF field,presence
of a beam)
0D
2.5 cm
(cheap)
0D
Idealized region spanning space between
electrodes, spatial (1D)and temporal gradients
and physical boundaries are added.(RF field,
beam injection throughelectrode)
1D
(modest sizecalculation)
1D
Axi-symmetric approximation(?/ ?q 0), radial
gradients are added, RF power can be feed in
via a port.
2D
2D
(call in sick)
70D Lsp simulations of RF breakdown in hydrogen
- Lsp model (particle-in-cell Monte Carlo collision
model or PIC-MCC) previously benchmarked for RF
breakdown in helium C. Thoma, et al. IEEE Trans.
Plasma Sci. 34, 910 (2006). - Here, we carry out similar calculations in
hydrogen, for direct comparison to experiments
P. Hanlet, et al., EPAC, 2006 M. BastaniNejad,
et al., PAC 2007. - PIC-MCC model uses cross-section data compiled
from Boltzmann code calculations and experimental
data D. V. Rose, et al., ICOPS 2007, C. Thoma,
et al., Voss Sci. Report VSL-0621 (2006). - Here, the model is compared with experimental
data for gas pressures less than the electrode
breakdown limits. -
80D Lsp calculations in 805 MHz RF field indicate
no breakdown at 10 MV/m (blue dot), and breakdown
for fields at 25 and 50 MV/m (red dots),
consistent with measurements.
P. Hanlet, et al., EPAC, 2006
90D simulations of RF breakdown are in agreement
with experiments in H2 at 0.002 g/cm3
Seed plasma population has a density of 1010
cm-3, a very small fraction of the initial
neutral gas density (6x1020 cm-3). The 25 MV/m
simulation shows a very slow growth in
electron density (red curve) and the 50 MV
simulation (blue curve) shows an extremely
rapid breakdown of the gas.
At 25 MV/m, breakdown is initially slow but
finite (borderline Paschen level).
50 MV/m is well above Paschen level.
10Addition of low levels of SF6
- SF6 is a electro-negative gas and the electron
attachment channel provides a possible mechanism
to reduce the electron density, potentially
raising the Paschen curve limit (increasing the
breakdown strength of the H2). - Here, we explore 0D calculations of an H2/SF6
mixture (ratio of H2 to SF6 densities 10-4). - To the 0D simulations we add three species,
neutral SF6, SF6-, and SF6. - The attachment and ionization cross sections for
SF6 are composed of experimental and theoretical
model data D. V. Rose, et al., ICOPS 2007, C.
Thoma, et al., Voss Sci. Report VSL-0621 (2006).
110D Calculations with SF6 dopant show rapid
reduction in (seed) electron density
For this small level of SF6, electron density
prevented from increasing due to attachment of
electrons to SF6.
12Add streaming proton beam
- Based on Rols email (3-27-08), the planned
experiment would use 400 MeV proton bunches in an
805 MHz bucket - The proton speed incident on the gas cell b
0.713 - The bunch length is roughly dbct/2 (I assume
a worst-case short bunch of one-half of the sine
wave) d13.3 cm
13Estimate proton energy inside gas cell
I used the SRIM dE/dx stopping power tables and
fit simple functions for protonstopping in
Stainless Steel (vacuum vessel wall material) and
Tungsten (electrode material)
I assume 1D material layers composed of 5.1 cm of
stainless and 2.5 cm of tungsten.
A simple calculation shows that the average
proton energy entering the gas isroughly 209 MeV
(b0.58).
14Beam-impact ionization cross-section estimate
- Impact ionization cross-section for protons on
hydrogen gas gives s4.5x10-23 m2 for 209 MeV
protons. - Note I ignore additional energy loss of the
proton beam in the gas as it traverses the AK gap.
(for Eb gt 5 MeV)
15Proton beam density and impact ionization rate
- I assume a cylindrical beam bunch, 13.3 cm
long, 1-cm in radius, with 1010 protons the
density is then nbeam2.4x108 cm-3. - For beam impact ionization only, the electron
density in the gas evolves as
(I assume ngas 6x1020 cm-3 as used in the 0D
simulations already presented.)
So, in 1 ns, you should expect to generate 1012
cm-3 electron density due tobeam impact
ionization.
16Adding proton impact ionization to the 0D model
- The mean-free path for impact ionization is
l1/(ngass)4x10-3 cm (for the parameters I used
on the previous slide), which is much smaller
than the AK gap. - Optionally, we can temporally switch on and off
the impact ionization algorithm to simulate the
ion bunches entering and leaving the gas cell.
(not used here) - Adding a more detailed estimate of the ion bunch
energy distribution and emittance would be a
useful refinement of the 0D calculations.
17Impact ionization of H2 gas by the proton beam
rapidly drives the breakdown, as expected
10 MV/m case at 325 psia belowthe Paschen limit
25 MV/m case at 325 psia atthe Paschen limit
180D calculations including proton beam impact
ionization indicate that SF6 reduces electron
density growth rate slightly
Comparison of electron densitieswith and without
SF6.
Electron and negative ion SF6 densities.
Note I do not include beam impact ionization of
any SF6 species.
191D simulation model RF fields and proton impact
ionization
We inject 3 protonbunches into the 1D
simulation region through one of
theelectrodes. The electron densityincreases
significantlydue to proton impactionization of
the H2.
20Aside Our group members have done extensive
modeling of intense ion beam propagation
experiments and theoretical analysis
- 1 MeV proton beam propagation in 1-10 Torr gases
(helium, air, etc., Gamble II generator, Naval
Research Laboratory) - P. F. Ottinger, et al., Nucl. Instrum. Meth.
Phys. Res. A 464, 321 (2001). - P. F. Ottinger, et al., Phys. Plasmas 7, 346
(2000) - F. C. Young, et al., Phys. Plasmas 1, 1700
(1994). - F. C. Young, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 2573
(1993). - J. M. Neri, et al., Phys. Fluids B 5, 176 (1993).
- B. V. Oliver, et al., Phys. Plasmas 6, 582
(1999). - Heavy ion beam propagation in lt1 Torr gases
- P. K. Roy, et al., Nucl. Instrum. Meth. Phys.
Res. A 544, 225 (2005). - S. A. MacLaren, et al., Phys. Plasmas 9, 1712
(2002). - D. V. Rose, et al., Nucl. Instrum. Meth. Phys.
Res. A 464, 299 (2001). - D. R. Welch, et al., Phys. Plasmas 9, 2344
(2002). - D. V. Rose, et al., Phys. Plasmas 6, 4094 (1999).
- C. L. Olson, et al., Il Nuovo Cimento 106A, 1705
(1993). - B. V. Oliver, et al., Phys. Plasmas 3, 3267
(1996). - GeV proton beam propagation in the atmosphere
- D. V. Rose, et al., Phys. Rev. ST-AB 9, 044403
(2006). - D. V. Rose, et al., Phys. Plasmas 9, 1053
(2002). - Laser-matter interaction and generation of ion
beams
21Status Summary
- 0D modeling of RF breakdown in H2 consistent with
experimental results. - Addition of proton beam impact ionization rapidly
increases electron density in gap - 0D calculations consistent with simple analytic
estimates. - 1D calculations of proton bunches propagating
across the electrode gap give density increases
consistent with 0D calculations (no channel for
rapid electron removal). - SF6 dopant (preliminary results)
- 0D calculation including addition of SF6 dopant
to H2 (providing electron attachment) showed
substantial reduction in electron density near
Paschen-curve field-stress levels. - Adding proton beam impact ionization reduced, but
did not eliminate, electron density growth (more
complete analysis, including HSF6- should be
included). - Next Steps (proposals)
- Add electrode physics (e.g., Fowler-Nordheim
breakdown) to 1D simulations? - 2D simulations? (Extension to 2D will require
revisiting an implicit MCC scattering model
rather than the explicit PIC-MCC model used here
due to computational constraints.)