Plasma plume characterization of a vacuum arc thruster

A Vacuum Arc Thruster (VAT) is a thruster that uses the plasma created in a vacuum arc, an electrical discharge in a vacuum that creates high velocity and highly ionized plasmas, as the propellant without additional acceleration. A VAT would be a small and inexpensive low thrust ion thruster, ideal for small satellites and formation flying spacecraft.; The purpose of this thesis was to quantitatively and qualitatively examine the VAT plasma plume to determine operating characteristics and limitations. A VAT with a titanium cathode was operated in two regimes: (A) single ∼100mus pulse, discharge current JD=510A, and (B) multiple ∼1500mus pulses at f=40.8Hz, JD=14A. The cathode was 3.18mm diameter Ti rod, surrounded by a 0.80mm thick alumina insulator, set in a molybdenum anode. Three Configurations were tested: Cfg1 (Regime A, cathode recessed 3.00mm from anode), Cfg2 (Regime A, cathode and anode flush), Cfg3 (Regime B, cathode recessed 3.00mm).; A semi-empirical model was derived for VAT performance based on the MHD equation of motion using data for ion velocity, ion charge state distribution, ion current fraction (F), and ion current density distribution (ICDD). Additional performance parameters were a2, the peak ion current density angular offset from the cathode normal, and a3, the width of the ion current distribution.; Measurements were taken at 162 points on a plane in the plasma plume using a custom faraday probe, and the ICDD empirical form was determined to be a Gaussian. The discharge voltage (VD) and F were Cfg1: VD=25.5V, F=0.025-0.035; Cfg2: VD=40.7V, F=0.08-0.10; Cfg3: VD=14.9V, F=0.006-0.021. For Cfg1, a2 started 15° off-axis while a2∼0 for Cfg2 and 3. In Cfg1, a 3=0.7-0.6, and in Cfg2 a3=1.0-1.1, so the recessed cathode focused the plasma more. However, F is more important for VAT performance because upper and lower bounds for thrust, specific impulse, thrust-to-power, and efficiency were calculated and Cfg2 had the highest performance. High-speed videos captured cathode spot motion showing that the cathode spot had preferred attachment points at the cathode edge. Photographs show uneven cathode erosion at the edge, a deposited layer of cathode material on the anode and insulator, and large macroparticles.