Plasma Generation and Plume Expansion for a Transmission-Mode Micro-Laser Ablation Plasma Thruster
نویسندگان
چکیده
An end-to-end model is presented of the transient plume created by a micro laser-ablation plasma thruster. In this paper we describe a model of the plasma generation and expansion for a microlaser plasma thruster operated in transmission-mode (T-mode). The laser ablation and plasma formation processes are modeled using a kinetic ablation model. This procedure provides boundary conditions at the target surface for the plume model that is based on a particle computational approach. The present study considers a 2.5-8 W diode-based laser irradiating a poly-vinyl chloride target over a rectangular focal spot of 30 x 120 μm for a pulse length of 3-10 ms. The plume simulations reveal many details of the multi-component plasma expansion. The results are compared with experimentally obtained plume signatures. Generally good agreement between experimental and calculated flux profiles is found.
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