title: Recent progress in plasma modelling at INFN-LNS.
abstract: At Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (INFN-LNS), the development of intense ion and proton sources has been supported by a great deal of work on the modelling of microwave generated plasmas for many years. First, a stationary version of the particle-in-cell code was developed for plasma modelling starting from an iterative strategy adopted for the space charge dominated beam transport simulations. Electromagnetic properties of the plasma and full-waves simulations are now affordable for non-homogenous and non-isotropic magnetized plasma via "cold" approximation. The effects of Coulomb collisions on plasma particles dynamics was implemented with the Langevin formalism, instead of simply applying the Spitzer 90° collisions through a Monte Carlo technique. A wide database of different cross sections related to reactions occurring in a hydrogen plasma was implemented. The next step consists of merging such a variety of approaches for retrieving an "as-a-whole" picture of plasma dynamics in ion sources. The preliminary results will be summarized in the paper for a microwave discharge ion source designed for intense and high quality proton beams production, proton source for European Spallation Source project. Even if the realization of a predictive software including the complete processes involved in plasma formation is still rather far, a better comprehension of the source behavior is possible and so the simulations may support the optimization phase.
authors.affiliation: INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Via S. Sofia 62, 95125 Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Neri
authors.affiliation: INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Via S. Sofia 62, 95125 Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.affiliation: INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Via S. Sofia 62, 95125 Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Torrisi
authors.affiliation: INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Viale dell'Università 2, 35020 Legnaro, Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Galatà
authors.affiliation: INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Via S. Sofia 62, 95125 Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mascali
authors.affiliation: INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Via S. Sofia 62, 95125 Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Celona
authors.affiliation: INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Via S. Sofia 62, 95125 Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gammino