Measurement of re-entry plasma density using microwave reflectometer in laboratory

Abstract

A laboratory-scale experiment was conducted to reproduce plasma with properties similar to re-entry plasma and measure the plasma density using a microwave reflectometer system. To reproduce a similar re-entry plasma, a high-temperature refractory anode vacuum arc plasma method was used among arc plasma discharge methods, and arc plasma having high temperature, high speed, and high-density plasma characteristics was discharged inside a vacuum chamber. A hot refractory anode made of tungsten was used to show high-temperature plasma characteristics, and high-density plasma characteristics were demonstrated using re-evaporation around the anode. In addition, high-speed plasma characteristics were exhibited using a brass cathode. This kind of arc plasma discharge has a high temperature and is characterized by high fluctuation. It was determined that a microwave reflectometer system with good spatial resolution and non-invasiveness would be suitable to measure plasma with these characteristics. The reflection coefficient was measured using a reflector system by comparing the voltage between the traveling wave applied to the plasma and the reflected wave reflected by the plasma, and the technique of analyzing the plasma density using the difference between these reflection coefficients was used. In this study, the plasma density according to the pressure change was typically measured as 1012–1013 cm−3, which showed a similar tendency to the result of measuring the actual re-entry plasma density.