Secondary Electron Emission Measurement of Insulating Materials for Spacecraft

Abstract

We studied how to measure the secondary electron emission (SEE) of metal and insulating materials used for satellite thermal insulation or other such purposes. SEE yield measurement is very important for analyzing charge accumulation on the satellite surfaces due to the space environment because electron emission due to irradiated electrons influences the amount of surface charge. Therefore, we tried to measure the SEE yield. To measure SEE, we used an improved SEM system for SEE measurement that has a beam blanking unit and a Faraday cup. From this system, we can obtain the characteristics of the SEE yield from insulation materials irradiated by an electron beam with an energy of 600eV to 5keV. In this report, we introduce the SEE yield measurement results of reference materials (Au, Ag and Quartz glass) and insulating materials. From those results, we discuss the characteristics of SEE that depend on each material. Furthermore, we also propose a future plan of SEE measurement for satellite materials.