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Publications

This page lists research output from ION-I members, and the main external works the club’s designs build on.

Papers

  • Ion kinetics (stepwise ionization) simulation. ION-I Plasma Source subteam. In preparation, 2026–27. Simulation of electron-impact excitation and stepwise ionization of argon in the IonSpark discharge.

Posters

  • Arunachalam, A., Rojas Barragán, S., Kanagy, T., Arutchev, A., Paul, U., Kim, C., Choi, J., Luo, R., Qu, Y., Darlage, H., Soydan, Y., and Gonzalez, J. “Material Effects on Electron Emission in a Hollow Cathode.” Research poster, 2026. Compares tungsten, copper, and aluminum emitter pins; see IonSpark.

Talks and presentations

  • Arunachalam, A. “Numeric Considerations in Plasma Generation Simulations.” SIAM seminar, 17 April 2026. Finite-difference field solvers, gridding, numerical heating in PIC-MCC simulations, and separation of time scales.
  • ION-I Plasma Source subteam. “Visualization on Plasma Simulation.” Spring 2026. Particle-state visualization of electrons and neutral, metastable, and ionized argon, and a browser-based viewer.

Design reviews

  • Plasma Source: system requirements review; preliminary and critical design reviews (IonSpark).
  • Discharge Chamber: system requirements review, version 2.3.
  • Ion Optics: system requirements overview.

Reference works

  • Gott, R. P. The Development and Analysis of a Heaterless, Insertless, Microplasma-Based Hollow Cathode. M.S.E. thesis, University of Alabama in Huntsville, 2017. The design IonSpark is adapted from.
  • Gott, R. P., and Xu, K. G. IEPC-2017-183. International Electric Propulsion Conference, 2017.
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