John Verboncoeur

Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Michigan State University

  • East Lansing MI

John Verboncoeur studies computational plasma physics, electromagnetics, beam physics and high field effects,

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Michigan State University

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Biography

Computational plasma physics, electromagnetics, beam physics, high field effects including sheath formation, field emission, multipactor, and breakdown, laser-plasma interactions, plasma edge effects, transport, numerical methods, object-oriented techniques applied to scientific computing, visualization, plasma waves and boundary phenomena. Applications include microwave-beam devices, charged particle beam optics, fusion and other energy applications, accelerators, plasma thrusters, low pressure discharges for plasma processing, and high pressure discharges including plasma display panels and fluorescent lamps.

Industry Expertise

Education/Learning

Areas of Expertise

Propulsion Technologies

Accomplishments

Charles K. Birdsall Award, Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

2022

Education

University of California - Berkeley

Ph.D.

Nuclear Engineering

1992

Affiliations

  • Senior Member, IEEE

News

Michigan State University's LiDAR Demonstration - John Verboncoeur

Michigan Online  online

2019-01-17

In this segment at the North American International Auto Show, John gives a memorable demonstration of how Lidar works to give self-driving cars an idea of what is around them. He also explains some of the initiatives in the self-driving car space that are happening at Michigan State University.

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Journal Articles

Field reversal in low pressure, unmagnetized radio frequency capacitively coupled argon plasma discharges

Applied Physics Letters

2023

In general, the radio frequency (rf) electric field within a sheath points toward the metal electrode in low pressure, unmagnetized rf electropositive capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) glow discharges. This is due to the large ratio of electron to ion mobility and the formation of an ion sheath. In this work, we studied, using fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, a reversed electric field induced by the strong secondary electron emission during the phase of sheath collapse in a high-voltage rf-driven low pressure CCP glow discharge.

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Recent advances in multipactor physics and mitigation

High Voltage

2023

Recent progress made in the prediction, characterisation, and mitigation of multipactor discharge is reviewed for single‐ and two‐surface geometries. First, an overview of basic concepts including secondary electron emission, electron kinetics under the force law, multipactor susceptibility, and saturation mechanisms is provided, followed by a discussion on multipactor mitigation strategies. These strategies are categorised into two broad areas – mitigation by engineered devices and engineered radio frequency (rf) fields. Each approach is useful in different applications.

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Two surface multipactor with non-sinusoidal RF fields

Journal of Applied Physics

2023

Two-surface multipactor with a Gaussian-type waveform of rf electric fields is investigated by employing Monte Carlo simulations and 3D electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulations. The effects of the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the Gaussian profile on multipactor susceptibility and the time dependent dynamics are studied. The threshold peak rf voltage, as well as the threshold time-averaged rf power per unit area for multipactor development, increases with a Gaussian-type electric field compared to that with a sinusoidal electric field.

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