A Molecular Hydrogen Ring Jet Charge Exchanger for the Production of Energetic Oxygen Atoms

摘要

A facility to produce energetic, ground state (~3P) oxygen atoms is currently being developed at the University of Southern California. The system utilizes ion engine technology to produce a well collimated beam of energetic ions. These ions are subsequently accelerated, mass and energy selected, neutralized in a charge exchange process, and impinged on solid or gas targets. The focus of this paper is the charge exchange procedure. the ring jet concept has been incorporated into the Geometrically Augmented Inertially Tethered Charge Exchanger (GAITCE) which is used to introduce a charge exchange gas into the ion beam flowfield. Preliminary calculations using molecular hydrogen as the charge exchange gas suggests that nearly 30percent of the ions will be neutralized with a maximum scattering half angle of about 22.5 deg.