Plasma Characterization of a 10-cm Diameter Microwave Discharge Ion Thruster
Plasma Characterization of a 10-cm Diameter Microwave Discharge Ion Thruster
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DOI：
10.2514/1.11379
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发表时间：
2004-07
影响因子：
1.9
通讯作者：
I. Funaki;H. Kuninaka;K. Toki
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
I. Funaki;H. Kuninaka;K. Toki
对电子回旋共振（ECR）型离子推力器的等离子体特性进行了研究。对于一个10厘米直径的微波放电离子源组成的两个钐钴磁铁环周围的中心波导发射微波，等离子体分布被发现有严重的非均匀分布，与局部等离子体发现附近的磁铁环。这种局部等离子体主要产生于两个环形磁体之间的磁通管中，在磁镜之间的弹跳运动期间，电子在通过ECR线时获得微波能量。为了获得低成本的微波离子源，可以利用这种类型的电离机制。然而，当通过低磁场边界引入微波时，不可能消除与截止密度相关的可达性困难，这导致等离子体低于截止密度。由于可达性困难，在这项工作中，仅实现了1.8mA/cm 2的相对小的离子束电流密度。
Plasma characterization was conducted for an electron-cyclotron-resonance (ECR) type ion thruster. For a 10-cm diameter microwave discharge ion source consisting of two samarium cobalt magnet rings surrounding a centered waveguide for launching microwaves, plasma profiles were found to have severely non-uniform distributions, with localized plasma found near the magnet rings. This localized plasma is mainly produced in the magnetic flux tubes between the two ring magnets, where electrons gain microwave energy as they pass the ECR line during the bouncing movement between magnetic mirrors. To obtain a low-cost microwave ion source, this type of ionization mechanism can be exploited. When introducing microwaves through a low magnetic field boundary, however, it is impossible to eliminate the accessibility difficulty related to the cutoff density, which results in a plasma below the cutoff density. Because of the accessibility difficulty, in this work, only a relatively small ion beam current density of 1.8 mA/cm2 was achieved.