A novel laser ablation plasma thruster with electromagnetic acceleration

A novel laser ablation plasma thruster accelerated by electromagnetic means was proposed and investigated. The discharge characteristics and thrust performance were tested with different charged energy, structural parameters and propellants. The thrust performance was proven to be improved by electromagnetic acceleration. In contrast with the pure laser propulsion mode, the thrust performance in electromagnetic acceleration modes was much better. The effects of electrodes distance and the off-axis distance between ceramic tube and cathode were tested, and it׳s found that there were optimal structural parameters for achieving optimal thrust performance. It׳s indicated that the impulse bit and specific impulse increased with increasing charged energy. In our experiments, the thrust performance of the thruster was optimal in large charged energy modes. With the charged energy 25 J and the use of metal aluminum, a maximal impulse bit of 600 μNs, a specific impulse of approximate 8000 s and thrust efficiency of about 90% were obtained. For the PTFE propellant, a maximal impulse bit of about 350 μNs, a specific impulse of about 2400 s, and thrust efficiency of about 16% were obtained. Besides, the metal aluminum was proven to be the better propellant than PTFE for the thruster.