Effect of applied magnetic field on a microwave plasma thruster

摘要

Theoretical analysis and calculation show that applying a magnetic field in a microwave plasma thruster operating at 2.45 GHz can improve the thruster performance, whereby an electron cyclotron resonant layer at thruster startup state contributes to the increase of microwave energy dissipated in plasma, and a strong magnetic field up to 0.5 T can increase the peak temperature of inside plasma when the thruster operates in steady state. Experimental measurements of the thruster with applied field and operating on argon gas show high coupling efficiency. Plasma plume diagnostics deduce a high degree of gas ionization in the thruster cavity. This shows the feasibility of operating a microwave plasma thruster with an applied magnetic field. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.