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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1995

Investigation of Possible Electromagnetic Disturbances caused by Spacecraft-Plasma Interactions at 4 Radii

The proposed Small Solar Probe mission features a close approach to the sun with a perihelion of 4 radii. Carbon molecules emitted from the spacecraft's heat shield will become ionized by electron impact and photoionization. The newly created ions and electrons may generate electromagnetic and electrostatic plasma waves which are possible sources of interference with in-situ plasma measurements.

computer simulations↗
NASA NTRS2024

The Peregrine Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS) Investigation Development and Pre-Flight Planning

The Peregrine Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS) is a mass spectrometer instrument that operated during the Astrobotic Peregrine Mission-1 as part of the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. This paper describes the instrument and investigation design, development, and planning conducted by the PITMS team consisting of a successful partnership between NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), The Open University (OU), NASA, and ESA. PITMS was designed to measure the abundance and temporal variability of volatile species in the near-surface lunar exosphere from a landed platform on the lunar surface. The PITMS instrument consisted of an ESA-provided Exospheric Mass Spectrometer (EMS; including sensor, electronics, controller, power supply boards) and a GSFC wrapper that provided structural elements, thermal control, and a deployable dust cover. PITMS was designed to operate as a passive sampler, where ambient gases would enter PITMS through an aperture, diffuse around the mass analyzer cavity, become ionized by electron impact and trapped in a radiofrequency field, then sequentially released to a detector to build a mass spectrum. PITMS was capable of measuring species with a massto-charge ratio (m/z) from 10 to 150 Da, with a mass resolution of approximately 0.5 amu. The PITMS science investigation was planned to be operated by GSFC with an international team of scientists. Though the mission did not achieve its lunar landing, information about the PITMS instrument and planning is provided to be able to understand and effectively use data that will be forthcoming from the investigation.

Barbara Cohen↗
NASA NTRS1986

Semiconductor superlattice photodetectors

Technical progress made in the study of superlattice photoconductors is summarized and papers submitted for publication are listed. Since the quantum-well regions may contain several subbands, each of which may be occupied by electrons depending on the doping concentrations, it is important to include the multi-subbands in calculating the impact ionization rate. The electrons occupying the higher subbands require a smaller amount of energy to get out of the quantum well; thus, those higher level subband electrons contribute significantly to the impact ionization rate. The results of the subbands have been calculated. Results concerning the nonparabolicity effect of the band structure, the effect of the quantum-well size, and the effect of the band-edge discontinuity and doping are also summarized.

Chuang, S. L.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Shock tube study of ionization rates of NaCl-contaminated argon

Electron density, electron temperature, and concentration of excited sodium atoms are measured in the weakly ionized regime behind a shock wave in impure argon in a shock tube using microwave techniques and spectrally resolved radiometry. Evidence is presented to show that an apparent increase in the rate of ionization is due to electron detachment of negative chlorine ions produced from sodium chloride vapor contained as an impurity. To be consistent with this chemical model, rate coefficients are found in the temperature range between 5500 and 8600 K for the dissociation of NaCl into an ion pair, dissociation of NaCl into a neutral pair, and electron detachment of a negative chlorine ion. Electron temperature is lower than heavy-particle temperature by roughly 1000 K. The electron-argon impact-ionization rate coefficient is a weak function of electron temperature in contradiction to expectation.

Schneider, K.-P.↗
NASA NTRS1983

The threshold laws for electron-atom and positron-atom impact ionization

The Coulomb-dipole theory is employed to derive a threshold law for the lowest energy needed for the separation of three particles from one another. The study focuses on an electron impinging on a neutral atom, and the dipole is formed between an inner electron and the nucleus. The analytical dependence of the transition matrix element on energy is reduced to lowest order to obtain the threshold law, with the inner electron providing a shield for the nucleus. Experimental results using the LAMPF accelerator to produce a high energy beam of H- ions, which are then exposed to an optical laser beam to detach the negative H- ion, are discussed. The threshold level is found to be confined to the region defined by the upper bound of the inverse square of the Coulomb-dipole region. Difficulties in exact experimental confirmation of the threshold are considered.

Temkin, A.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Competing atomic processes in Ba and Sr injection critical velocity experiments

The critical ionization velocity effect requires a superthermal electron population to ionize through collisional impact. Such superthermal electrons can however lose energy to competing atomic processes, as well as to ionization, thus limiting the efficiency of the effect. Considering Ba and Sr magnetospheric injection experiments designed to test the CIV theory, it is found that in both cases roughly 60 percent of the superthermal electron energy is lost on exciting line radiation. Moreover, energy loss to background neutral oxygen places a strict limit on the injected cloud densities for which critical velocity effects are possible; a finding which explains the consistently negative results in radial injection experiments.

Newell, P. T.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Cross sections for the production of energetic cations by electron impact on N2 and CO2

Dissociative ionization cross sections for the production of singly charged energetic ions by electron impact on N2 and CO2 have been measured. The ions were divided into two groups: one with energies less than 1 eV and the other with energies greater than 1 eV. The ions detected were N+ from N2 and C+, O+, and CO+ from CO2. The electron impact energy range, and cross section data on ions is given.

energetic cations↗
NASA NTRS1983

Escape and ionization of atomic oxygen from Io

Model calculations of the neutral O cloud of Io, based on atom-electron-impact excitation and ionization processes in the plasma torus, are presented. The model is quantitatively anchored to the 6300-A O I emission intensity observations of Brown (1981), and uses a plasma temperature and density structure based on Voyager 1 and 2 and EUV data. Parameters predicted by the model include satellite emission flux = 1.5 x 10 to the 9th/sq cm sec, ion-loading rate = 6.2 x 10 to the 26th ions/sec, O mass-loading rate = 16.6 kg/sec, and O ion-energy input rate = 2.7 x 10 to the 10th W. The spatial morphologies of the parameters are shown. Rough estimates obtained by accounting for a neutral S cloud and plasma-torus charge-exchange reactions include O source flux = 1.2 x 10 to the 10th/sq cm sec, ion-loading rate = 4.0 x 10 to the 27th ions/sec, ion-diffusive-loss time = 200 days, plasma mass-loading rate = 150 kg/sec, satellite mass-loss rate = 270 kg/sec, and maximum ion-energy input = 4 x 10 to the 11th W.

Smyth, W. H.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Ionization processes in mercury discharges

A summary of theoretical calculations of the ionization processes in mercury plasma is presented. Various possible ionization processes are analyzed and discussed. It is found that the ionization due to excited state interactions is dominant when the degree of ionization is small and that the ionization due to multistep electron impact is significant when the degree of ionization is high.

Wu, F. T.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Ionization cross-sections for the production of positive ions from H2O by electron impact

Water is present in the atmospheres of 6 of the 9 planets. Cross section values for the direct and partial ionization of H2O by electron impact have been measured and compared with previously published data. The present measurements have been carried out from thresholds to 1 KeV by utilizing a crossed electron beam and molecular beam collision geometry and an improved ion extraction technique.

planetary atmospheres↗
NASA NTRS1994

Ion Chemistry in Atmospheric and Astrophysical Plasmas

There are many differences and also remarkable similarities between the ion chemistry and physics of planetary ionospheres and the ion chemistry and physics of astronomical environments beyond the solar system. In the early Universe, an expanded cooling gas of hydrogen and helium was embedded in the cosmic background radiation field and ionized by it. As the Universe cooled by adiabatic expansion, recombination occurred and molecular formation was driven by catalytic reactions involving the relict electrons and protons. Similar chemical processes are effective in the ionized zones of gaseous and planetary nebulae and in stellar winds where the ionization is due to radiation from the central stars, in the envelopes of supernovae where the ionization is initiated by the deposition of gamma-rays, in dissociative shocks where the ionization arises from electron impacts in a hot gas and in quasar broad-line region clouds where the quasar is responsible for the ionization. At high altitudes in the atmospheres of the Jovian planets, the main constituents are hydrogen and helium and the ion chemistry and physics is determined by the same processes, the source of the ionization being solar ultraviolet radiation and cosmic rays. After the collapse of the first distinct astronomical entities to emerge from the uniform flow, heavy elements were created by nuclear burning in the cores of the collapsed objects and distributed throughout the Universe by winds and explosions. The chemistry and physics became more complicated. Over 90 distinct molecular species have been identified in interstellar clouds where they are ionized globally by cosmic ray impacts and locally by radiation and shocks associated with star formation and evolution. Complex molecules have also been found in circumstellar shells of evolved stars. At intermediate and low altitudes in the Jovian atmospheres, the ion chemistry is complicated by the increasing abundance of heavy elements such as carbon, and an extensive array of complex molecules has been predicted. Reactions involving heavy elements dominate the structure of the ionspheres of the terrestrial planets and the satellites Titan and Triton.

Dalgarno, A.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Ion-driven destabilization of a toroidal electron plasma—A 3D3V PIC simulation

Ion-driven destabilization of a toroidal electron plasma in a small aspect ratio axisymmetric toroidal device is reported for A r + ions of different initial density values using a high fidelity 3D3V PIC solver. Stability of a recently discovered quiescent quasi-steady state (QQS) of a toroidal electron plasma obtained from “seed” solution as a result of entropy extremization at zero inertia is addressed in the presence of a small ion population. An initial value (f0) of the ion fraction (f = n i / n e) and the corresponding secondary electrons are “preloaded” into the system after the electron plasma attains a QQS state. This procedure is regarded as a proxy to the conventional production of ions in the experimental devices via impact ionization. The resulting electron plasma exhibits destabilized “center of charge motion” (m = 1) along with higher order harmonics with dominant power in the second harmonic. Gradual loss of ions (and also electrons) is observed resulting in time varying f values. Beyond a certain value of f0 (≥ 0.005), growth in wall probe current is observed, which saturates at later simulation time due to the loss of particles. In conclusion, trajectories of ion particles indicate ion trapping in the potential well, which is qualitatively similar to the ion resonance instability in pure electron plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1978

Variable fragmentation mass spectrometry using chemi-ionization

A description is given of experiments which provide a verification of three features of Penning ionization mass spectrometry. One of these features is related to the ability to simplify a molecular fragmentation pattern and to intensify the molecular ion peak. Another feature is concerned with the ability to identify uniquely geometric isomers which are indistinguishable using high-energy electron impact methods. The third feature involves the ability to identify components in a mixture, which cannot be discerned using electron impact or chemical ionization methods alone. The investigation shows that Penning ionization is an efficient soft ionization technique which can be used to simplify mass spectra of pure compounds as well as mixtures.

Laudenslager, J. B.↗