Investigation of ion charge composition and energy distribution of laser ablation plasma from liquid metal

Abstract

The use of recoil momentum from a laser ablation flare is found to be one of promising way for development of low-propulsion thrusters (LPT) for launching of micro and nano-satellites. The present work suggests using the liquid Ga-In alloy as the ablated body instead of a solid-state one. A Nd:YAG laser with output of 0.25 mJ and pulse duration of 2.5 ns (FWHM) was used for ablation. Charge-resolved ion energy distributions of the laser-ablation plasma were studied by means of an energy-mass analyzer EQP Hiden Analytical. Angular distribution of laser plasma density and plasma flow velocity were retrieved from measurement of ion saturation currents on a set of collectors placed at different axial and azimuthal angles relative to the target surface normal. It was found that the thrust from the liquid-metal target remains very stable during a long operation time while life-time of the target is limited only by the working body supply.

Initiation of explosive emission centers assisted by laser ablation plasma

“…For identification of the moment of a high-voltage pulse applying to the discharge gap and for measurement of the ablation plasma density, the ion saturation current from plasma to the discharge gap electrodes was measured in situ. For this, the high-voltage generator was disconnected and small (50 V) negative bias voltage was applied to electrodes, as it is described in more details in [5].…”