Numerical modeling of plasma sheath phenomena in the presence of secondary electron emission

The steady-state, sheath between a Maxwellian plasma source and a dielectric surface was simulated numerically in the collisionless hypothesis. A method of nonphysical numerical time evolution was investigated to extend the electrostatic particle-in-cell method to a large range of ion masses at low cost in calculation time. Secondary electron emission effects were also considered and all of these results for a Maxwellian plasma were validated by comparison with previous analytical models in the entire range of ion masses and with other numerical simulations in the case of light ions. The occurrence of instabilities resulting from the interaction between the ion and the secondary electron flows was also investigated. The numerical times method was thus validated and its limitations characterized. It is now available to simulate arbitrary distribution functions of electrons, secondary electrons, and ions at low cost in calculation time.