Practical Aspects of Fundamental Research in Thermionic Conversion.
Abstract
The first half year of activity on pathfinder tasks, to define and utilize basic thermionic converter research for practical purposes, is reported. The elementary theory presented in a preceding report is compared with experimental data covering a wide variety of conditions. A correlation of experimental variables is found which is consistent with the previous formulation and gives insight into the nature of the ion generation process. The data also suggest that an elementary but adequate description of the saturation region of the discharge is that it is dominated by a fully ionized space adjacent to the emitter, characterized by a relatively high but constant electron temperature compared with that in the bulk plasma. Experimental work has been initiated to use an argon discharge as an analog system in which to evaluate improvements in cesium vapor converter electrode configurations. Experimental techniques have been tested in a preliminary apparatus, including a new deformable emitter, mapping probe, etc. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 30, 1970
- Accession Number
- AD0714253
Entities
People
- Ned S. Rasor