Paper detail

Modeling of bound electron effects in particle-in-cell simulation

To include the bound electron effects in particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation, we propose a model in which the response of the dipole components of partially ionized ions to external electromagnetic fields can be included. Instead of treating the macro-ion particle as a single particle without an internal structure, the ions are considered to have a structure composed of a central nucleus and a bounded electron cloud in our model. The two parts experience the interactions of both the external electromagnetic fields and the internal Coulomb fields. In this way, the laser scattering effects by a partially ionized medium can be modeled properly in the PIC simulation. The laser propagation in a neutral medium and the Bragg scattering of the laser in crystal structure have been simulated with a PIC code modified based on our model as the benchmark. Our model may find applications to study some interesting problems, such as the x-ray laser-driven wakefield acceleration in crystals, the x-ray laser-driven high energy density physics, and intense laser propagation in partially ionized nonlinear optical materials, etc.