TY - JOUR
T1 - Ion energy distributions in a permanent-magnet-expanded plasma containing an electric double layer
AU - Takahashi, Kazunori
AU - Fujiwara, Tamiya
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received September 17, 2010; revised March 22, 2011; accepted May 16, 2011. Date of publication June 13, 2011; date of current version November 9, 2011. This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A 22684031) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, and in part by the TEPCO Research Foundation.
PY - 2011/11
Y1 - 2011/11
N2 - Ion energy distribution functions are measured along the axis in a solenoid-free plasma expanded by permanent magnets (PMs). The source diameter, the working argon gas pressure, and the 13.56-MHz radio-frequency power are chosen as 6.5 cm, 0.35 mtorr, and 250 W, respectively. The divergent magnetic field of about 100 G in the source tube and of about a few gauss in the diffusion chamber is provided by the PMs. The contour image of the measured ion energy distributions clearly shows the electrostatic ion acceleration in the region where the local plasma potential rapidly drops over a few centimeters. The result also indicates a loss of the beam ions and an increase of the bulk ions in the diffusion chamber due to the charge exchange process between the beam ions and argon neutrals.
AB - Ion energy distribution functions are measured along the axis in a solenoid-free plasma expanded by permanent magnets (PMs). The source diameter, the working argon gas pressure, and the 13.56-MHz radio-frequency power are chosen as 6.5 cm, 0.35 mtorr, and 250 W, respectively. The divergent magnetic field of about 100 G in the source tube and of about a few gauss in the diffusion chamber is provided by the PMs. The contour image of the measured ion energy distributions clearly shows the electrostatic ion acceleration in the region where the local plasma potential rapidly drops over a few centimeters. The result also indicates a loss of the beam ions and an increase of the bulk ions in the diffusion chamber due to the charge exchange process between the beam ions and argon neutrals.
KW - Ion acceleration
KW - permanent magnets (PMs)
KW - plasma propulsion
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=81255168094&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=81255168094&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TPS.2011.2157708
DO - 10.1109/TPS.2011.2157708
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:81255168094
SN - 0093-3813
VL - 39
SP - 2444
EP - 2445
JO - IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
JF - IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
IS - 11 PART 1
M1 - 5875899
ER -