Experimental Visualization of Ion Thruster Discharge and Beam Extraction

Abstract

To inspect numerical models for precise numerical analysis code development and to research ion thruster mechanisms (its discharge and ion beam optics behavior), a two-dimensional Kaufman-type visualized ion thruster was designed and fabricated. Its operations, probe measurements and spectroscopy measurements indicate that this thruster can visualize a schematic of ion production and extraction as described in conventional textbooks: ion beam extraction influences the ion density distribution in most of the discharge chamber; a close correlation exists between the ion beam focus position and the appropriate beam optics.