Experiment and analysis of the neutralization of the electron cyclotron resonance ion thruster

Yizhou JIN (金逸舟); Juan YANG (杨涓); Jun SUN (孙俊); Xianchuang LIU (刘宪闯); Yizhi HUANG (黄益智)

doi:10.1088/2058-6272/aa76d9

Plasma Science and Technology > 2017 > 19(10): 105502. > DOI: 10.1088/2058-6272/aa76d9

Yizhou JIN (金逸舟), Juan YANG (杨涓), Jun SUN (孙俊), Xianchuang LIU (刘宪闯), Yizhi HUANG (黄益智). Experiment and analysis of the neutralization of the electron cyclotron resonance ion thruster[J]. Plasma Science and Technology, 2017, 19(10): 105502. DOI: 10.1088/2058-6272/aa76d9

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Experiment and analysis of the neutralization of the electron cyclotron resonance ion thruster

1 School of Astronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, People’s Republic of China 2 Shanghai Institute of Spacefiight Control Technology, Shanghai 200233, People’s Republic of China 3 Shanghai Key Laboratory of Aerospace Intelligent Control Technology, Shanghai 200233, People’s Republic of China

Funds: The authors sincerely appreciate the support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11475137).

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Received Date: November 24, 2016

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Abstract

Abstract

An electron cyclotron resonance ion thruster must emit an electron current equivalent to its ion beam current to prevent the thruster system from being electrically charged. This operation is defined as neutralization. The factors which influence neutralization are categorized into the ion beam current parameters, the neutralizer input parameters, and the neutralizer position. To understand the mechanism of neutralization, an experiment and a calculation study on how these factors influence thruster neutralization are presented. The experiment results show that the minimum bias voltage of the neutralizer was -60 V at the ion beam current of 80 mA for the argon propellant, and a critical gas flow rate existed, below which the coupling voltage increased sharply. Based on the experiment, the neutralization was analyzed by means of a one-dimensional calculation model. The computation results show that the coupling voltage was influenced by the beam divergence and the negative potential zone near the grids.
- ECR neutralizer,
- ion beam neutralization,
- coupling voltage

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References (26)

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