Ion Heating in a Supersonic Plasma Flow for an Advanced Plasma Thruster

Abstract

Ion heating experiments are performed in a fast flowing plasma with an ion Mach number of nearly unity. RF waves with an ion cyclotron range of frequency is excited by a pair of loop antennas located at a divergent magnetic nozzle. Increase of plasma thermal energy W(perpendicular to) measured by a diamagnetic coil is observed when the waves are excited with various azimuthal mode numbers in several magnetic nozzle configurations. It is most effective to heat ions of plasma flow to excite the waves with an azimuthal mode number of m= 1. The heating efficiency is larger in the magnetic beach configuration than that in the uniform one.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 20, 2003
Accession Number
ADP014997

Entities

People

  • A. Ando
  • K. Hattori
  • S. Fujimura
  • T. Yagai
  • Y. Hosokawa

Organizations

  • Tohoku University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Antennas
  • Cyclotron Resonance
  • Cyclotrons
  • Dispersion Relations
  • Doppler Effect
  • Electric Propulsion
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Excitation
  • Frequency
  • Loop Antennas
  • Mach Number
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Magnetic Forces
  • Phase Shift
  • Power Supplies
  • Propulsion Systems
  • Waves

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flow
  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster