In order to simulate the nanosecond pulsed laser ablation of aluminum, a novel model was presented for the target ablation and plume expansion. The simulation of the target ablation was based on one-dimensional heat conduction, taking into account temperature dependent material properties, phase transition, dielectric transition and phase explosion. While the simulation of the plume expansion was based on one-dimensional gas-dynamical equation, taking into account ionization, plume absorption and shielding. By coupling the calculations of the target ablation and plume expansion, the characteristics of the target and plume were obtained. And the calculated results were in good agreement with the experimental data, in terms of ablation threshold and depth within the fluence range of the tested laser. Subsequently, investigations were carried out to analyze the mechanisms of nanosecond pulsed laser ablation. The calculated results showed that the maximum surface temperature remained at about 90% of the critical temperature (0.9Tc) due to phase explosion. Moreover, the plume shielding has significant effects on the laser ablation, and the plume shielding proportion increase as the laser fluence increasing. The ambient pressure belows 100 Pa is more suitable for laser ablation, which can obtained larger ablation depth.

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A sympathetic resonance theory is analyzed and applied in a newly developed torsional pendulum to measure the micro-impulse produced by a μN s-class ablative pulsed plasma thruster. According to theoretical analysis on the dynamical behaviors of a torsional pendulum, the resonance amplification effect of micro-signals is presented. In addition, a new micro-impulse measurement method based on sympathetic resonance theory is proposed as an improvement of the original single pulse measurement method. In contrast with the single pulse measurement method, the advantages of sympathetic resonance method are significant. First, because of the magnification of vibration signals due to resonance processes, measurement precision for the sympathetic resonance method becomes higher especially in reducing reading error. With an increase in peak number, the relative errors induced by readout of voltage signals decrease to approximately ±1.9% for the sympathetic resonance mode, whereas the relative error in single pulse mode is estimated as ±13.4%. Besides, by using the resonance amplification effect the sympathetic resonance method makes it possible to measure an extremely low-impulse beyond the resolution of a thrust stand without redesigning or purchasing a new one. Moreover, because of the simple operational principle and structure the sympathetic resonance method is much more convenient and inexpensive to be implemented than other high-precision methods. Finally, the sympathetic resonance measurement method can also be applied in other thrust stands to improve further the ability to measure the low-impulse bits.

This paper introduces a new direct non-contact electromagnetic calibration technique for high precision measurements of micro-thrust and impulse. A ring-shaped electromagnet with an air gap is used in the calibration. The calibration force is produced by the interaction of a uniform magnetic field with a copper wire current in the air gap. This force depends linearly on this current as well as the steady angular displacement of the torsion arm of the thrust stand. The range of calibration force is very large and the calibration force is easy to generate and insensitive to the arm displacement. The calibration uncertainty for a 150-μN force is 4.17 μN. The more influential factor on the calibration uncertainty is the magnetization of the electromagnet core due to the copper wire current. In the impulse calibration, the exerted impulse is linearly dependent on the maximal angular displacement of the torsion arm. The uncertainty in the impulse calibration is determined by uncertainties in both the force calibration and the pulse time.

In order to further improve the propulsion performance of pulsed plasma thrusters for space micro propulsion, a novel laser ablation pulsed plasma thruster is proposed, which separated the laser ablation and electromagnetic acceleration. Optical emission spectroscopy is utilized to investigate the plasma characteristics in the thruster. The spectral lines at different times, positions and discharge intensities are experimentally recorded, and the plasma characteristics in the discharge channel are concluded through analyzing the variation of spectral lines. With the discharge energy of 24 J, laser energy of 0.6 J and the use of aluminum propellant, the specific impulse and thrust efficiency reach 6808 s and 70.6%, respectively.