Magnetized High-Frequency Excited Plasmas for Rarefied Air Ionization in Air-Breathing Electric Propulsion

Abstract

The primary objective of this study is to investigate a new magnetized high-frequency (HF) excited plasma discharge as an ionization source for extremely rarefied gas environments encountered in Air-Breathing Electric Propulsion (ABEP) for Very Low Earth Orbits (VLEO) satellites. The magnetized HF excited discharge has been demonstrated to break down molecular nitrogen at pressures 1 mTorr, 0.5 mTorr and 0.1 mTorr. The studied device consists of a parallel-plate type configuration driven at frequency of 100 MHz and static magnetic field of 100 G for plasma confinement. A plasma dynamic, its interaction with the geometry and the physics of ionization of rarefied molecular N2 were studied utilizing a high-fidelity computational modeling. A self-consistent Particle-in-Cell Monte-Carlo collisions (PIC-MCC) approach is employed for description of reactive collisions. The model was exercised in with a reduced order (1D) along the interelectrode direction. All three components of particle velocity (3V) are considered to accurately describe the effects of a magnetic field on particles and scattering events during collision. The vast parameter space of HF voltage and initial seed electron density are explored at high excitation frequency (100 MHz) to optimize operating conditions for maximum ionization rates in ExB discharge at rarefied N2 gas.