Modeling and numerical simulation of argon and hydrogen plasma sheaths with secondary electron emission

LPTPME, Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, Mohammed First University, Oujda, Morocco

^* Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Published online: 3 February 2026

Abstract

The characteristics of plasma sheaths in different background gases are of great importance for understanding plasma-surface interactions. In this work, a comparative investigation is performed on argon and hydrogen thermal electropositive plasmas containing primary electrons and singly charged ions near an electron-emitting surface. By taking into account the wall potential condition and the modified Bohm criterion, the plasma sheath characteristics such as the spatial profiles of secondary electron density and electrostatic potential are numerically investigated for argon and hydrogen plasmas with non-Maxwellian and Maxwellian primary electron distributions. This study provides valuable insights into plasma-surface interactions and may be useful in applications such as plasma processing and fusion technologies.