Computation of Ion Collection by a Large Rocket-Mounted Mass-Spectrometer Plate at a Large Drawing-in Potential.

Abstract

Calculations of the ion current density at the central point of a charged mass-spectrometer plate mounted on a rocket were extended into the regime of very small Debye lengths. Since self-consistent solutions are numerically difficult to obtain in this regime (especially for large dimensionless drawing-in potentials), the investigation was carried out with the aid of a linearized-space-charge model. Use of the model provides a potential distribution characterized by a Debye-length-like parameter lambda(H). The nature of the ion trajectories in the strong electric field is studied, and correlations between lambda(H) and the true Debye length are discussed. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 30, 1972
Accession Number
AD0750483

Entities

People

  • Lee W. Parker

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Computations
  • Current Density
  • Electric Fields
  • Electricity
  • Electromagnetic Fields
  • Instrumentation
  • Mass Spectrometers
  • Measuring Instruments
  • Space Charge
  • Spectrometers
  • Trajectories

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster