Formation mechanism of the rotating spoke in partially magnetized plasmas

Abstract: Rotating spokes commonly occur in partially magnetized plasmas devices. In this paper, the driving mechanism behind the formation of an m=1 rotating spoke mode in a magnetically enhanced hollow cathode arc discharge is investigated by means of 2D radial-azimuthal particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision simulations with a uniform axial magnetic field. We find that the formation of the spoke potential hump region can be explained as a result of the positive anode sheath collapse due to the lower hybrid type instability evolving into the long wavelength regime. It is shown that an initial short-wavelength instability in the non-neutral anode sheath undergoes a sequence of transitions into the large scale modes. The sheath non-neutrality effect on the instability is considered and incorporated in the two-fluid linear theory of the lower hybrid instability. The unstable modes predicted by the theory in the linear phase and nonlinear evolution are in good agreement with the fluctuation modes developed in the particle simulations.