Particle-in-cell and Monte Carlo collision simulations of the cathode sheath in an atmospheric direct-current arc discharge

A sheath is the transition region from plasma to a solid surface, which also plays a critical role in determining the behaviors of many lab and industrial plasmas. However, the cathode sheath properties in arc discharges are not well understood yet due to its multi-scale and kinetic features. In this letter, we have adopted an implicit particle-in-cell Monte Carlo collision (PIC-MCC) method to study the cathode sheath in an atmospheric arc discharge plasma. The cathode sheath thickness, number densities and averaged energies of electrons and ions, the electric field distribution, as well as the spatially averaged electron energy probability function (EEPF), are predicted self-consistently by using this newly developed kinetic model. It is also shown that the thermionic emission at the hot cathode surface is the dominant electron emission process to sustain the arc discharges, while the effects from secondary and field electron emissions are negligible. The present results verify the previous conjectures and experimental observations. (letter)