TY - JOUR
T1 - Vacuum solid-state ion-conducting silver source for application in field emission electric propulsion systems
AU - Tolstogouzov, Alexander
AU - Aguas, Hugo
AU - Ayouchi, Rachid
AU - Belykh, Sergey F.
AU - Fernandes, Fábio
AU - Gololobov, Gennady P.
AU - Moutinho, Augusto M C
AU - Schwarz, Reinhard
AU - Suvorov, Dmitry V.
AU - Teodoro, Orlando M N D
N1 - Sem pdf conforme despacho.
European Space Agency (4000113559/15/NL/CBi);
Portuguese National Funding Agency (FCT-MEC) (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007688 ; UID/CTM/50025/2013);
CEFITEC research grant (UID/FIS/00068/2013 ; PTDC/CTM-ENE/2514/2012).
PY - 2016/9/1
Y1 - 2016/9/1
N2 - A point-like silver ion source with thin film of RbAg4I5 solid electrolyte was developed for application in field emission electric propulsion systems. The solid electrolyte produced by mechano-chemical synthesis was deposited on the apex of a silver tip using pulsed laser deposition. The running tests at 195 °C working temperature and 10 kV accelerating potential have demonstrated that the source can continuously produce positive ion current of several hundred pA during a few days with a peak value of 25–50 nA. Using TOF-SIMS analysis it has been shown that the ion current consists of Ag+ with a small contribution of Rb+, lower than 0.5 at.%. We suggest that Ag+ emission occurs mainly by means of field-assisted ion evaporation and/or ion desorption, and the solid electrolyte plays a role of the transport system, in which the emitted Ag+ ions are continually replaced by mobile Ag+ ions delivered from the silver reservoir by direct mass transfer under the influence of an external electric field.
AB - A point-like silver ion source with thin film of RbAg4I5 solid electrolyte was developed for application in field emission electric propulsion systems. The solid electrolyte produced by mechano-chemical synthesis was deposited on the apex of a silver tip using pulsed laser deposition. The running tests at 195 °C working temperature and 10 kV accelerating potential have demonstrated that the source can continuously produce positive ion current of several hundred pA during a few days with a peak value of 25–50 nA. Using TOF-SIMS analysis it has been shown that the ion current consists of Ag+ with a small contribution of Rb+, lower than 0.5 at.%. We suggest that Ag+ emission occurs mainly by means of field-assisted ion evaporation and/or ion desorption, and the solid electrolyte plays a role of the transport system, in which the emitted Ag+ ions are continually replaced by mobile Ag+ ions delivered from the silver reservoir by direct mass transfer under the influence of an external electric field.
KW - Field emission electric propulsion (FEEP)
KW - Pulsed laser deposition
KW - RbAgI solid electrolyte
KW - Solid-state ion source
KW - Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84978153831&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.vacuum.2016.07.003
DO - 10.1016/j.vacuum.2016.07.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84978153831
SN - 0042-207X
VL - 131
SP - 252
EP - 258
JO - Vacuum
JF - Vacuum
ER -