Evaluation of ion current density distribution on an extraction electrode of a radio frequency ion thrusterстатья
Статья опубликована в высокорейтинговом журнале
Информация о цитировании статьи получена из
Web of Science
Статья опубликована в журнале из списка Web of Science и/или Scopus
Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 7 июля 2020 г.
Аннотация:The radial distributions of ion current density on an ion extracting electrode of a radio
frequency (RF) ion thruster (RIT) with an inductive plasma source were obtained using
probe diagnostics of the RF xenon plasma. Measurements were carried out using a plane
wall probe simulator and the VGPS-12 Probe System of Plasma Sensors Co. At xenon flow
rate q = 2 sccm plasma pressure was 2 · 10−3 Torr, incident RF generator power varied in the
range Pg = 50−250 W with RF power absorbed by plasma up to Pp = 220 W. Ion current
densities were determined using semi- and double-logarithmic probe characteristics by linear
extrapolations of their ion branches to probe floating potentials. The same parameters were
also measured in undisturbed plasma by a classic cylindrical probe. They exceeded plane
probe data by more than two times, showing the effectiveness of plasma sheath reproduction
of the RIT ion extracting electrode by the plane wall probe simulator. Slight non-uniformity
of the resulting plasma distributions and simplified RIT model design showed that the studied
device with flat antenna coil and ferrite core could be considered as a promising prospect for
RITs of new generation.