The vicinage effects are studied for a fast nitrogen diatomic molecular cluster in a high-density plasma target.A variety of plasma parameters are discussed with regard to stopping power ratio,molecular axis deflection and Coulomb explosion.Emphasis is placed on the vicinage effects on Coulomb explosion and stopping power for a nitrogen cluster in plasmas.The results indicate that vicinage effects influence the correlation between ions in the cluster,and the Coulomb explosion will proceed faster with higher projectile speed,lower plasma density and higher plasma temperature.Comparing hydrogen and nitrogen molecular ions for Coulomb explosion and deflection angle under the same set of parameters,one can find that the nitrogen ion has faster Coulomb explosion and stronger deflection of molecular axis due to the contribution of charge.In the initial stage of the Coulomb explosion the stopping power ratio has a higher value due to enhanced vicinage effects while in the later stage the stopping power ratio approaches one,indicating that the vicinage effects disappear and the ions in the cluster simply behave as independent atomic ions in the plasma.
The distribution of magnetic field in Hall thruster channel has significant effect on its discharge process and wall plasma sheath characteristics. By creating physical models for the wall sheath region and adopting two-dimensional particle in cell simulation method, this work aims to investigate the effects of magnitude and direction of magnetic field and ion velocity on the plasma sheath characteristics. The simulation results show that magnetic field magnitudes have small impact on the sheath potential and the secondary electron emission coefficient, magnetic azimuth between the magnetic field direction and the channel radial direction is proportional to the absolute value of the sheath potential, but inversely proportional to the secondary electron emission coefficient. With the increase of the ion incident velocity, secondary electron emission coefficient is enhanced, however, electron density number, sheath potential and radial electric field are decreased. When the boundary condition is determined, with an increase of the sinmlation area radial scale, the sheath potential oscillation is aggravated, and the stability of the sheath is reduced.
In order to investigate the effects of secondary electrons, which are emitted from the wall, on the performance of a thruster, a one-dimensional fluid model of the plasma sheath in double walls is applied to study the characteristics of a magnetized sheath. The effects of secondary electron emission （SEE） coefficients and trapping coefficients, as well as magnetic field, on the structure of the plasma sheath are investigated. The results show that sheath potential and wall potential rise with the increment of SEE coefficient and trapping coefficient which results in a reduced sheath thickness. In addition, magnetic field strength will influence the sheath potential distributions.
