John P. Verboncoeur
Associate Professor-in-Residence

Date of initial appointment

2001

Education

B.S. with High Honors, Engineering Science, University of Florida, 1986.
M.S., Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1987.
Ph.D. Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1992.

Field of specialization and areas of interest

Computational physics, plasmas, electromagnetics, nonlinear and kinetic effects, edge e ects, transport, stability, numerical methods, object-oriented techniques, visualization, plasma waves and boundary phenomena. Applications include microwave-beam devices, charged particle beam optics, fusion, accelerators, low pressure discharges for plasma processing, and high pressure discharges including plasma display panels and uorescent lamps.

Teaching and Research

Professor Verboncoeur teaches undergraduate courses in the introduction to computational engineering science as well as graduate courses in plasma physics via computer simulation and plasma theory. His research interests include computational physics, plasmas, electromagnetics, nonlinear and kinetic effects, edge effects, transport, stability, numerical methods, object-oriented techniques, visualization, plasma waves and boundary phenomena. Applications include microwave-beam devices, charged particle beam optics, fusion, accelerators, low pressure discharges for plasma processing, and high pressure discharges including plasma display panels and fluorescent lamps.

Research Overview: encompasses the broad field of computational plasma physics. Collisional and collisionless plasmas are treated, as well as bounded plasmas. Regimes of interest include electrostatic and electromagnetic.

• high temperature plasmas such as hot fusion
• low temperature discharges for lighting and materials processing
• electron and ion beams for heavy ion fusion, propulsion, accelerators, and lithography
• microwave beam devices for plasma heating, radar, and electronic warfare
• basic plasma physics, including instabilities and plasma-surface interactions
  numerical methods

Specific ongoing research projects include the following:

Microwave Beam Devices
Heavy Ion Fusion
Plasma Propulsion
Plasma Sputtering of Tantalum
Finite Element Particle Model

Recent significant research publications
Current complete list of publications

H. C. Kim and J. P. Verboncoeur, “Time-dependent physics of a singlesurface multipactor discharge", Phys. Plasmas 12, 123506-1-7 (2005).

J. P. Verboncoeur, “Particle simulation of plasmas: review and advances”, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 47, A231-A260 (2005), invited.

K. M. Rantamäki, K. M. Alm-Lytz, T. J. H. Pättikangas, S. J. Kart-1 tunen, J. P. Verboncoeur, and P. Mardahl, “Electromagnetic Particle-in-Cell Simulations of a Lower Hybrid Grill”, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
44, 1349-1362 (2002).

J. P. Verboncoeur, “Symmetric spline weighting for charge and current density in particle simulation”, J. Comp. Phys. 174, 421-427 (2001).

More Information

Back to Top