P. Meyer et G. Wunner, ASYNCHRONOUS CYCLING AS A CONVERGENCE ACCELERATION METHOD IN PARTICLESIMULATION OF DIRECT-CURRENT GLOW-DISCHARGES, Physics of plasmas, 4(9), 1997, pp. 3152-3162
The problem of multiple time scales in modeling plasmas by dynamical p
article simulation methods, such as the particle-in-cell (PIC) method,
is well known. One important cause is the large ratio of the ion and
electron mass. Ways to overcome this problem are the implicit PIC, or
simply, the use of a reduced ion-electron mass ratio. However, these m
ethods are not acceptable in modeling de glow discharges by the PIC-Mo
nte Carlo hybrid simulation technique. Therefore, a new method called
asynchronous cycling was developed, which manipulates the synchronizat
ion of the electron and ion simulation cycles. It allows a 50 times fa
ster convergence due to direct reduction of the different time scales
for situations in which the changes of macroscopic quantities are slow
er than the ion movement. This is demonstrated by the modeling of a co
mplete one-dimensional de glow discharge including cathode fall, plasm
a bulk, and anode fall. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.