Characteristics of Plasma and Gas in Microwave Discharge Ion Thruster μ10 Using Kinetic Particle Simulation

Abstract

The authors investigate the discharge chamber of the microwave ion thruster μ10 by using kinetic particle simulation. First, to investigate the plasma phenomena qualitatively, we conduct a particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation model. The simulation results indicate that the distribution of ion density is ring-shaped. To verify the simulation result with the experimental result, the simulation result is compared with the optical emission distribution. In low propellant flow rates, the distribution of ion density agrees with the optical emission distribution. However, in high propellant flow rates, the optical emission distribution is different from simulation results in the waveguide due to the excited neutral particles. In the thruster, the performance strongly depends on the location of injecting the propellant. Hence, to develop the plasma simulation for quantitative comparison with the experiment, the distribution of the neutral density is evaluated by using direct Monte Carlo simulation (DSMC). The results show the neutral density in the waveguide increases corresponding to the ratio of waveguide injection, which indicates that the density is one of the most important parameters for quantitative evaluation with the experiment.