Hannover 2016 – scientific programme

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P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 26: Poster Session-Plasma Diagnostics

P 26.2: Poster

Thursday, March 3, 2016, 16:30–19:00, Empore Lichthof

Enhanced setup facilitating emittance measurement for diagnosing ion thrusters — •Kristof Holste, Stefan Schippers, Alfred Müller, and Peter Klar — Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen

Here we present an improved experimental setup for measuring the transverse emittance of low energy ion beams emerged, for instance, from gridded ion thrusters. Typically, the ion energy is in the order of 1 keV, the ion beams' divergence is in the order of 5-20°. The primary ion beam is decomposed into beamlets by an array of thin slits (0.2 mm slit width, 0.5 mm web thickness, 0.2 mm plate thickness). The spatial intensity distribution of the beamlets behind the slit array is measured with a wire scanner. The deviation of the beamlets' position relative to the corresponding slits corresponds to the transverse momentum distribution of the ions. Thus, the transverse phase-space area (emittance) occupied by the ions can be derived. The emittance is an important parameter for diagnosing the quality of the ion optics of an ion thruster and allows optimization of the extraction grids. Results from emittance measurements and comarisons with ions beam simulations will be presented.