Development of a parallelized 3D electrostatic PIC-FEM code and its applications Original Research Article

A parallelized three-dimensional self-consistent electrostatic particle-in-cell (PIC) code using unstructured tetrahedral mesh is proposed. Parallel implementation of the current unstructured PIC-FEM code is realized on distributed-memory PC-cluster system utilizing dynamic domain decomposition. Completed code is verified by simulating a quasi-1D RF argon gas discharge with results comparable to previous experimental observations and simulations. Parallel performance with dynamic domain decomposition of the PIC code is tested using a 3D RF argon gas discharge on a PC-cluster system. Results show that parallel efficiency can achieve 83% at 32 processors with dynamic domain decomposition. Some possible improvement of the code performance is demonstrated. Completed code is then applied to predict field emission without and with space-charge effect, and to simulate the RF magnetron argon plasma to demonstrate its capability in handling practical problems.