Measurement of Aluminum Erosion Rate by Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy

Abstract

A cavity ring-down spectroscopy method to measure sputter erosion and estimate the lifetime of electric propulsion systems was developed. We measured sputtered aluminum atoms from the acceleration grid of an ion thruster. An external-cavity diode laser was used as the probe laser to measure the aluminum transition line from ground state to upper state, at 394.512 nm (vacuum). The erosion rate of the acceleration grid was estimated to be 259 ± 99 ng/s.