3-D Simulation of Low-Temperature Plasma Development Under Pulsed Conditions

The development of a low-temperature plasma in a needle-protrusion to plane gap is investigated utilizing a 3-D particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision method implemented to run on single NVIDIA graphics processing unit. In addition to electron collisions, the model includes field detachment, photon tracking, and a drift-diffusion approximation for positive ions. The simulated geometry tracks several million electrons with 15-μm spatial resolution.