Effect of discharge chamber geometry on ion loss in microwave discharge ion thruster

Abstract The authors redesigned the discharge chamber for the μ10 microwave discharge ion thruster to improve its thrust performance and succeeded in enhancing the maximum beam current and thrust efficiency. However, it was found that the ion current fraction extracted from the discharge chamber with the redesigned configuration was lower than that obtained with the original configuration. To investigate the relationship between ion extraction and the magnetic field geometry, the ion loss current distribution in these two types of discharge chamber were measured by electrostatic probes. Using planar probes with a guard ring, the ion current that flowed into the wall was measured without disturbing the ion beam current. The results show that ionization occurs mainly near the upstream magnet. In addition, the ion flux on the sidewall in the redesigned discharge chamber is about 2–3 times larger than that in the original discharge chamber. This suggests that the distance between the edge of the plasma confinement region and the chamber wall with consideration of the Larmor radius of ions is an important parameter in discharge chamber design. In addition, although the screen current showed a tendency to saturate at high microwave power, the ion loss to each part in the discharge chamber increased in proportion to input microwave power. The decrease in the extracted ion fraction in the redesigned discharge chamber is considered to be caused by a decrease in the electrostatic ion transparency of the screen grid. Therefore, in a well-tuned microwave discharge ion thruster, it is difficult to improve the thrust efficiency by increasing the discharge power. A design that suppresses the wall loss of ions is thus important.