Investigation of collision effects on ion dynamics in the presheath and sheath of weakly collisional and magnetized hydrogen plasmas

Abstract

The effect of collisions on the motion of magnetized ions in sheath and presheath plasma regions was investigated through the measurement of ion incident angle of a hydrogen ion at a graphite surface. The experiment was conducted in hydrogen and deuterium plasmas where the ion mean free path is 5–10 times larger than the ion gyro radius and with varying magnetic field angle ψ from 0° to 90° normal to the target surface. The hydrogen ions actively reacted with carbon, leading to the formation of conical tips with axes directed along the incident ion flow direction. The ion incident angle was measured from the etched graphite images taken by scanning electron microscopy. The measured angles were compared to those calculated using Ahedo's fluid magnetic sheath model. In addition, we adopted the nominal Bohm criterion at the electrostatic sheath edge due to the larger ion gyro radius than the sheath. The results show that the ion incident angle was inclined to the normal direction with respect to the magnetic field angle because of the effect of ion collisions on ion motion in the presheath. The collisional effect on the ion motion is drastic for an oblique magnetic field angle ψ > 85°. This study demonstrates that the collisional property of the ions is crucial to guide the ion motion in magnetic (pre)sheath and to determine the ion incidence angle at the surface, even in collisionless and weakly magnetized plasmas.