Plasma characteristics in the discharge region of a 20A emission current hollow cathode

Mingming SUN (孙明明); Tianping ZHANG (张天平); Xiaodong WEN (温晓东); Weilong GUO (郭伟龙); Jiayao SONG (宋嘉尧)

doi:10.1088/2058-6272/aa8edb

Plasma Science and Technology > 2018 > 20(2): 25503-025503. > DOI: 10.1088/2058-6272/aa8edb

Mingming SUN (孙明明), Tianping ZHANG (张天平), Xiaodong WEN (温晓东), Weilong GUO (郭伟龙), Jiayao SONG (宋嘉尧). Plasma characteristics in the discharge region of a 20A emission current hollow cathode[J]. Plasma Science and Technology, 2018, 20(2): 25503-025503. DOI: 10.1088/2058-6272/aa8edb

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Plasma characteristics in the discharge region of a 20A emission current hollow cathode

1 Science and Technology on Vacuum Technology and Physics Laboratory, Lanzhou Institute of Physics, Lanzhou 730000, People’s Republic of China 2 Weather Modification Office of Shaanxi Province, Xi’an 710014, People’s Republic of China

Funds: This work is supported by the National Key Laboratory Fund of Science and Technology on Vacuum Technology & Physics (Grant No.6142207030103).

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Received Date: July 03, 2017

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Abstract

Abstract

Numerical calculation and fluid simulation methods were used to obtain the plasma characteristics in the discharge region of the LIPS-300 ion thruster’s 20 A emission current hollow cathode and to verify the structural design of the emitter. The results of the two methods indicated that the highest plasma density and electron temperature, which improved significantly in the orifice region, were located in the discharge region of the hollow cathode. The magnitude of plasma density was about 10²¹ m^-3 in the emitter and orifice regions, as obtained by numerical calculations, but decreased exponentially in the plume region with the distance from the orifice exit. Meanwhile, compared to the emitter region, the electron temperature and current improved by about 36% in the orifice region. The hollow cathode performance test results were in good agreement with the numerical calculation results, which proved that that the structural design of the emitter and the orifice met the requirements of a 20 A emission current. The numerical calculation method can be used to estimate plasma characteristics in the preliminary design stage of hollow cathodes.
- ion thruster,
- hollow cathode,
- plasma characteristics

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References (21)

References

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