Enhanced plasma transport due to neutral depletion

Convergent neutral gas injection using supersonic gas puffing (SSGP) method for propellant feeding system in RF electric propulsion

A convergent gas feeding method is proposed to alleviate neutral gas depletion near the central plasma region in typical electrodeless radio-frequency (RF)/helicon plasma thrusters. To achieve further performance improvement, the SuperSonic Gas Puffing (SSGP) system is one of the methods that is expected to overcome the above-mentioned depletion and the density limit. This study discovered that the spatiotemporal profiles of the neutral pressure and the estimated gas diffusion angle vary depending on the SSGP gas feeding condition, i.e., the nozzle size, filling pressure, and the valve opening time. Convergent gas feeding is successfully conducted using the SSGP method in a vacuum. As a preliminary study, high-density plasma is also obtained in the vicinity of the gas injection region using the developed SSGP system. The effects of the gas feeding position and an external divergent magnetic field on the plasma density are investigated. A suitable gas feeding position/region exists for plasma generation using the RF/helicon plasma thruster.

Magnetic nozzle radiofrequency plasma thruster approaching twenty percent thruster efficiency

Development of a magnetic nozzle radiofrequency (rf) plasma thruster has been one of challenging topics in space electric propulsion technologies. The thruster typically consists of an rf plasma source and a magnetic nozzle, where the plasma produced inside the source is transported along the magnetic field and expands in the magnetic nozzle. An imparted thrust is significantly affected by the rf power coupling for the plasma production, the plasma transport, the plasma loss to the wall, and the plasma acceleration process in the magnetic nozzle. The rf power transfer efficiency and the imparted thrust are assessed for two types of rf antennas exciting azimuthal mode number of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$m=+1$$\end{document}m=+1 and \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$m=0$$\end{document}m=0, where propellant argon gas is introduced from the upstream of the thruster source tube. The rf power transfer efficiency and the density measured at the radial center for the \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$m=+1$$\end{document}m=+1 mode antenna are higher than those for the \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$m=0$$\end{document}m=0 mode antenna, while a larger thrust is obtained for the \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$m=0$$\end{document}m=0 mode antenna. Two-dimensional plume characterization suggests that the lowered performance for the \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$m=+1$$\end{document}m=+1 mode case is due to the plasma production at the radial center, where contribution on a thrust exerted to the magnetic nozzle is weak due to the absence of the radial magnetic field. Subsequently, the configuration is modified so as to introduce the propellant gas near the thruster exit for the \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$m=0$$\end{document}m=0 mode configuration and the thruster efficiency approaching twenty percent is successfully obtained, being highest to date in the kW-class magnetic nozzle rf plasma thrusters.

Axial momentum lost to a lateral wall of a helicon plasma source

Momentum exerted to a lateral wall of a helicon plasma source is individually measured for argon, krypton, and xenon gases. A significant loss of the axial plasma momentum to the lateral wall, which has been assumed to be negligible, is experimentally identified when an axially asymmetric density profile is formed in the source. This indicates that the radially lost ions deliver not only the radial momentum but also the axial momentum to the lateral wall. The formation of the axial asymmetry causing the momentum loss is interpreted with competition between the magnetic field and neutral depletion effects.

High resolution laser induced fluorescence Doppler velocimetry utilizing saturated absorption spectroscopy

A high resolution laser induced fluorescence (LIF) system has been developed to measure the flow velocity field of neutral particles in an electron-cyclotron-resonance argon plasma. The flow velocity has been determined by the Doppler shift of the LIF spectrum, which is proportional to the velocity distribution function. Very high accuracy in velocity determination has been achieved by installing a saturated absorption spectroscopy unit into the LIF system, where the absolute value and scale of laser wavelength are determined by using the Lamb dip and the fringes of a Fabry-Perot interferometer. The minimum detectable flow velocity of a newly developed LIF system is +/-2 m/s, and this performance remains unchanged in a long-time experiment. From the radial measurements of LIF spectra of argon metastable atoms, it is found that there exists an inward flow of neutral particles associated with neutral depletion.