Ion physics forms the basis for numerous modern technologies and research directions such as microelectronics, material research, analytics or high-energy physics. The reason for the broad range applications of ion physics lies in the ions characteristics: -The ions possess a mass, which makes a direct energy transfer possible to the solid atoms (flexible energy transmission); -The velocity of ...

If we put a voltage between the magnetic shunt and two conducting plates perpendicular to the z-axis in a symmetric fashion, we would obtain the same shape of the electric field, because both E and B may be derived as gradient of a potential. We propose to explore this simple physical system, in which E and B are everywhere parallel, to obtain low temperature, magnetically confined electron beams.

The temporal fluctuations in the near plume of a 100-A LaB6 hollow cathode are experimentally investigated. A probe array is employed to measure the amplitude and dispersion of axial modes in the plume, and these properties are parametrically examined as a function of cathode operating investigations. The onset of ion acoustic turbulence (IAT) is observed at high current values, and the charact...

The study put forth demonstrates that the seed electrons average kinetic energy influences the discharge characteristics making it possible to maximize the rate of development of the virtual anode in a pseudospark, with a suitable choice of the neutral gas pressure as determined by the seed’s average injection speed. This investigation also brings to light two distinct operating regimes; (1) mi...

We report a novel experimental setup for studying collision induced products resulting from the interaction of anionic beams with a neutral gas-phase molecular target. The precursor projectile was admitted into vacuum through a commercial pulsed valve, with the anionic beam produced in a hollow cathode discharge-induced plasma, and guided to the interaction region by a set of deflecting plates ...

In this paper, we report the development of hollowcathode micro plasma devices made using micromachining techniques. Compared with larger discharge devices, micromachined discharge devices operate at much higher pressures, up to 1 atm. Linear current-voltage relationships are obtained, potentially simplifying the control electronics for such devices. The size of micromachined discharge units is...

Over the last decade, miniature ion thruster development has remained an active area of research do to its low power, low thrust, and high efficiency, however, due to several technical issues; a flight level miniature ion thruster has proved elusive. This thesis covers the design, fabrication, assembly, and test of an altered version of the Miniature Xenon Ion thruster (MiXI), originally develo...

Electric propulsion devices for space applications greatly reduce the propellant mass requirements on a spacecraft in comparison to chemical rockets. To date, gridded ion engines and Hall effect thrusters (HETs) rely on thermionic hollow cathodes to supply electrons for propellant ionization and ion beam neutralization. Hollow cathodes consume up to 10% of the total propellant used in low-power...

The new high effiency extreme ultraviolet overview spectrometer (HEXOS) system for the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X is now mounted for testing and adjustment at the tokamak experiment for technology oriented research (TEXTOR). One part of the testing phase was the intensity calibration of the two double spectrometers which in total cover a spectral range from 2.5 to 160.0 nm with overlap. This w...