Simulation of charged-particle beam transport in a gas using a hybrid particle-fluid plasma model

The simulation of charged-particle beam transport in a ∼1 Torr gas requires accurate plasma-electron modeling. A simple resistive model, which assumes local energy deposition and a thermal plasma-electron distribution, is inadequate. A hybrid model has been implemented into the particle-in-cell simulation code, iprop (The iprop Three-Dimensional Beam Propagation Code, AMRC-R-966, available from D. Welch, Mission Research Corporation, 1720 Randolph Road SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106, September 1987), in which plasma electrons are divided into high-energy macroparticle and thermal-fluid components. This model, which includes ‘‘knock-on’’ bound-electron collision and runaway sources for high-energy electrons, is then used in the simulation of relativistic electron-beam and ion-beam experiments. Results are found to be in agreement with HERMES III [Performance of the HERMES III Gamma Ray Simulator, in Digest of Technical Papers, 7th IEEE Pulsed Power Conference, Monterey, CA, 11 June 1989 (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, New York, 1989), pp. 26–31] and GAMBLE II [Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 2573 (1993)] experimental observables.