DocumentCode :
104386
Title :
Experimental Investigation on Plasma Plume Potential
Author :
Polansky, John ; Wang, Jiacheng ; Ning Ding
Author_Institution :
Astronaut. Eng. Dept., Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Volume :
41
Issue :
12
fYear :
2013
fDate :
Dec. 2013
Firstpage :
3438
Lastpage :
3447
Abstract :
An experimental investigation is carried out to quantify the potential of the plasma plume emitted by an ion thruster type plasma source. A capability for efficient 2-D measurements of the plume profile is developed. The effects of plume expansion, plume charge-exchange (CEX) plasma, and facility background plasma on plume potential are investigated. For plasma source and vacuum chamber operating conditions considered in this paper, we find that the propellant CEX plasma is the primary factor that terminates the plume expansion process, and thus largely controls the magnitude of the plume potential with respect to the ambient.
Keywords :
Langmuir probes; charge exchange; plasma collision processes; plasma diagnostics; plasma sources; 2D plume profile measurement; Langmuir probe; facility background plasma; ion thruster type plasma source; plasma ion beam-neutral collision; plasma plume potential; plume charge-exchange plasma; plume expansion; propellant CEX plasma; vacuum chamber; Electric potential; Ions; Particle beams; Plasma measurements; Plasmas; Probes; Propulsion; Charge-exchange (CEX) ions; plasma plume emission; plasma potential; vacuum chamber testing;
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
0093-3813
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/TPS.2013.2277724
Filename :
6587815
Link To Document :
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