Study of electron current extraction from a radio frequency plasma cathode designed as a neutralizer for ion source applications.

Plasma cathodes are insert free devices that are developed to be employed as electron sources in electric propulsion and ion source applications as practical alternatives to more commonly used hollow cathodes. Inductively coupled plasma cathodes, or Radio Frequency (RF) plasma cathodes, are introduced in recent years. Because of its compact geometry, and simple and efficient plasma generation, RF plasma source is considered to be suitable for plasma cathode applications. In this study, numerous RF plasma cathodes have been designed and manufactured. Experimental measurements have been conducted to study the effects of geometric and operational parameters. Experimental results of this study show that the plasma generation and electron extraction characteristics of the RF plasma cathode device strongly depend on the geometric parameters such as chamber diameter, chamber length, orifice diameter, orifice length, as well as the operational parameters such as RF power and gas mass flow rate.