An Investigation into the Spectral Imaging of Hall Thruster Plumes
Abstract
An exploratory investigation of measuring xenon spectral emission lines in a Hall thruster plume through optical imaging techniques was performed on the SPT-100 Hall thruster. A 16 bit CCD camera was used with optical interference bandwidth filters to separately photograph neutral (823 nm) and ion (542 nm) xenon emission. The resulting images allowed for examination of the near-plume structure in terms of excited ions and neutral particles for various thruster operating conditions. Abel inversion analysis was applied to the photographs to examine the emission as a function of radius with the assumption of axial symmetry and optically thin plasma. This experimental technique may provide results useful for comparison with numerical near-plume predictions that incorporate collisional radiative models.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2015
- Accession Number
- ADA622137
Entities
People
- Michael R. Holmes
- Michael R. Nakles
- William A. Hargus
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory