Characteristics of charge accumulation in glass materials under electron beam irradiation

Space charge formation in various glass materials under electron beam irradiation was investigated. Charging of spacecraft occurs in plasma and radiation environment. Especially, we focused on an accident caused by internal charging in a glass material that was used as the cover plate of solar panel array, and tried to measure the charge distribution in glass materials under electron beam irradiation by using a PEA (pulsed electro-acoustic method) system. In the case of a quartz glass (pure SiO2), no charge accumulation was observed either during or after the electron beam irradiation. On the contrary, positive charge accumulation was observed in glass samples containing metal-oxide components. It is found that the polarity of the observed charges depends on the contents of the impurities. To identify which impurity dominates the polarity of the accumulated charge, we measured charge distributions in several glass materials containing various metal-oxide components and calculated the trap energy depths from the charge decay characteristics of all glass samples. Furthermore, the dependence of the polarity of accumulated charges on the component of glass materials is discussed by using the models of energy bands.