Neutral atom density measurements of xenon plasma inside a μ10 microwave ion thruster using two-photon laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy

Abstract This paper reports measurements of the xenon ground state and excited state densities inside a μ10 microwave ion thruster. This thruster exhibits a 40% thrust enhancement upon changing from the waveguide to the discharge chamber propellant injection mode. In the present work, the associated mechanism was quantitatively evaluated using two-photon laser induced fluorescence (TALIF) spectroscopy to monitor the thruster waveguide. The 834.7 nm emission from excited state xenon was investigated with a 224.3 nm dye laser to excite the Xe I 5p61 S0 6pʹ [3/2]2 state, compared with the emission without the laser. The resulting data confirm that the neutral density exhibits a linear relationship with the propellant flow rate in the cold gas and ionized state, while the ion acceleration decreases the neutral density by the same order of magnitude as the propellant utilization efficiency is changed. As the propellant flow rate increases, the collisions of neutrals that generate excited states occur in the waveguide and, when this process plateaus, the ground state emission suddenly increases. Propellant injection from the discharge chamber is evidently effective at suppressing collisions with electrons in the waveguide that generate excited states and that potentially interfere with microwave propagation.