Effects of magnetic field configuration on thrust performance in a miniature microwave discharge ion thruster | Zendy

Naoji Yamamoto | Zendy; Shinya Kondo | Zendy; Takayuki Chikaoka | Zendy; Hideki Nakashima | Zendy; Hirokazu Masui | Zendy

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Effects of magnetic field configuration on thrust performance in a miniature microwave discharge ion thruster

Author(s) -

Naoji Yamamoto,

Shinya Kondo,

Takayuki Chikaoka,

Hideki Nakashima,

Hirokazu Masui

Publication year - 2007

Publication title -

journal of applied physics

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 0.699

H-Index - 319

eISSN - 1089-7550

pISSN - 0021-8979

DOI - 10.1063/1.2822456

Subject(s) - ion current , magnetic field , atomic physics , ion source , ion beam , microwave , saturation current , ionization , materials science , saturation (graph theory) , ion , chemistry , nuclear magnetic resonance , beam (structure) , optics , physics , voltage , quantum mechanics , mathematics , organic chemistry , combinatorics

The effects of magnetic field configuration on thrust performance in a miniature microwave discharge ion thruster were investigated in order to improve thrust performance. First, the extracted ion beam current was measured for various levels of strength of the magnetic field. It was found that there is an optimum magnitude of the magnetic field. That this is due to the tradeoff between magnetic mirror confinement and microwave-plasma coupling was confirmed by measurement of the ion saturation current into the antenna of the ion thruster. The ion saturation current was found to decrease with an increase in magnetic field strength, due to the improvement in magnetic mirror confinement. The estimated electron temperature also decreases with an increase in magnetic field strength. This result shows that the increase in magnetic field strength leads to a decrease in microwave-plasma coupling. Next, the ion beam current for three magnetic field shapes was measured by changing the length of the central yoke. The...

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