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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2015

Characterization Of A Neutralizer-Free Gridded Ion Thruster

Résumé

A gridded electric thruster that operates with only one RF power source providing propellant ionization, ion acceleration and beam neutralization is described here. Acceleration of both ions and electrons is achieved by a single set of extraction grids and the system is therefore neutralizer-free. The concept has a strong technology heritage from existing ion thrusters, where the main difference is due to using RF power for the ion acceleration. The acceleration grids terminating the plasma source are biased by an RF voltage across a blocking capacitor, such that a dc self-bias is formed externally to the plasma between the extraction grids. This self-bias accelerate ions, while electrons are co-extracted in short instance between the RF cycles. It is shown here that the RF acceleration principle allows to almost double the space charge limited ion current through the extraction system. We present experiments that provide a first characterization and principal proof-of-concept of the prototype called Neptune. The Neptune thruster is an ICP-based plasma source with a two-grid system where the RF power of 4 MHz from a single generator is distributed between the ICP inductor and the grids. A broad quasi-neutral ion-electron beam with the ion energy up to 800 eV is successfully generated without the use of a neutralizer. The beam transport is investigated by measuring time-averaged and time-resolved ion and electron energies, fluxes, densities and angular distributions using retarding field energy analyzers, collimated Faraday probe and other electrostatic probes.
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Dates et versions

hal-02570454 , version 1 (12-05-2020)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-02570454 , version 1

Citer

D.V. Rafalskyi, Ane Aanesland. Characterization Of A Neutralizer-Free Gridded Ion Thruster. 34th International Electric Propulsion Conference, Jul 2015, kobe, Japan. pp.IEPC-2015-379/STS-2015-b-9025. ⟨hal-02570454⟩
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