Three-Dimensional Particle-in-Cell Simulation of Kinetic Instabilities in Partially Magnetized Plasmas

Kinetic instabilities can affect electron transport across magnetic field lines in cross-field plasma discharges, such as the ones observed in Hall effect thrusters. Plasma instabilities and the corresponding transport phenomena in such devices are multidimensional, hence requiring three-dimensional (3D) kinetic simulations to investigate the instability behavior and nonlinear saturation. In this talk, the development of a 3D particle-in-cell simulation will be discussed. Various instabilities in particlally magnetized plasmas, such as the electron cyclotron drift instability (ECDI) and modified two-stream instability (MTSI), will be investigated through the simulation of a three-dimensional, periodic box with perpendicular, applied electric and magnetic fields.. We will discuss the growth of the instabilities accounting for the 3D plasma dynamics across and along the magnetic field lines, and the dispersion characteristics will be compared to previous theoretical work on the subject [Denig and Hara, Phys. Of Plasmas 30, 032108 (2023)]. The behavior of these multidimensional plasma waves will be compared to linear perturbation theory, and the nonlinear, turbulent characteristics of the waves in a physical system will also be highlighted.

This work was supported by a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunity, under Grant No. 80NSSC21K1273 and by NASA through the Joint Advanced Propulsion Institute, a NASA Space Technology Research Institute under Grant No. 80NSSC21K1118.