Abstract
In this study, development of a laser-electrostatic hybrid acceleration thruster was conducted, which is a combination of a laser propulsion system and an electrostatic propulsion system. Since this system can additionally accelerate ions by accelerating laser-ablation plasma by an external electrostatic field, highspeed ions can be generated. In this study, to obtain spatial and temporal plasma parameters for the optimum acceleration, Langmuir probe measurement of laser-ablation plasmas was firstly conducted, where focused Nd:YAG laser pulses were irradiated on a copper target in a vacuum chamber. Temporal changes of spatial distributions of the plasma parameters were obtained. As the results, the maximum electron temperatures varied from 6.4 eV to 1.5 eV at probe positions at 150 mm and 170 mm respectively.
