Measurement of xenon plasma properties in an ion thruster using laser Thomson scattering technique

This paper reports on the development of a method for measuring xenon plasma properties using the laser Thomson scattering technique, for application to ion engine system design. The thresholds of photo-ionization of xenon plasma were investigated and the number density of metastable atoms, which are photo-ionized by a probe laser, was measured using laser absorption spectroscopy, for several conditions. The measured threshold energy of the probe laser using a plano-convex lens with a focal length of 200 mm was 150 mJ for a xenon mass flow rate of 20 μgs and incident microwave power of 6 W; the probe laser energy was therefore set as 80 mJ. Electron number density was found to be (6.2 ± 0.4) × 10 ¹⁷ m ^-3 and electron temperature was found to be 2.2 ± 0.4 eV at a xenon mass flow rate of 20 μgs and incident microwave power of 6 W. The threshold of the probe laser intensity against photo-ionization in a miniature xenon ion thruster is almost constant for various mass flow rates, since the ratio of population of the metastable atoms to the electron number density is little changed.