Coherent Ion Acceleration Using Beating Electrostatic Waves
Abstract
The results obtained from AFOSR-sponsored study on a new ion acceleration using beating electrostatic waves. Unlike previously known methods of energizing plasmas with electrostatic waves, and which accelerate only ions whose initial velocities are above a certain threshold (close to the waves velocity), the new mechanism can accelerate ions with arbitrarily small initial velocities. This results in significant improvements to the acceleration/heating efficiency (by as much as 45%) over previous techniques. The benefits to the state of the art of space propulsion stem from the high efficiency of the new mechanism,its thersholdless nature an its capabilities of producing high ion energies and its electrodeless character. In summary project accomplished the following: 1 Demonstrated theoretically that a new highly efficient ion acceleration mechanism by heating electrostatic (ES) waves is teal and is a fundamental phenomenon that occurs only under specific conditions. 2. Studied using Monte Carlo simulations the effects of collisions (that would occur in a real low temperature plasma) on the ion acceleration mechanism and found that collisions can enhance the effects due to scattering of ions out of the forbidden region of phase space. 3. Designed and constructed a dedicated experiment to stud the new ion acceleration mechanism.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA433228
Entities
People
- Edgar Choueiri
Organizations
- Princeton University