1. Discharge characteristics and mode transition of a ring-cusp magnetically confined plasma bridge neutralizer.
- Author
-
Ren, Linyuan, Wang, Yanan, Ding, Weidong, Sun, Anbang, Karadag, Burak, Deng, Zichen, and Geng, Jinyue
- Subjects
- *
PLASMA confinement , *CURRENT fluctuations , *WORKING gases , *PLASMA sheaths , *OSCILLATIONS , *CATHODES - Abstract
The discharge mode characteristics of cathodes may strongly influence the discharge stability and performance of electrostatic thrusters. In this article, discharge characteristics and mode transition phenomenon of the ring-cusp magnetically confined plasma bridge neutralizer (RCM-PBN) were experimentally studied using argon as the working gas. The dependences of anode current and oscillation amplitude on anode voltage, argon flow rate, heater power, and cathode-to-anode distance were investigated. Plasma properties were measured and plasma plume images were taken under different discharge modes. Two distinct discharge modes were observed during the experiments: high oscillation mode and low oscillation mode. In the high oscillation mode, the plasma plume appears dim, the anode current is low, and the oscillation level is more than 2%. While in the low oscillation mode, a spot-like structure close to the orifice is observed. The plume becomes brighter, the anode current increases, and the oscillation level decreases below 2%. The RCM-PBN was found to transition into the low oscillation mode by increasing anode voltage, flow rate, heater power and by decreasing the cathode-to-anode distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF