Experimental Investigation of the Reflection Mode Micro Laser Propulsion under Highly Frequent and Multi Pulse Laser

Journal Article · Thu Nov 10 00:00:00 EST 2011 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3657045· OSTI ID:21612164

Xinghua, Zhang; Jian, Cai ^[1]; Long, Li ^[2]

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1. Microelectronic Equipment Technology Department, Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029 (China)
2. Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230027 (China)

Micro laser propulsion used for some space tasks of micro-satellites are preferred to providing small thrust and high specific impulse while keeping power consumption low. Most previous work on micro laser propulsion are about transmission mode (T-mode) using a CW laser. In this article, a pulsed fiber laser is used to study the micro laser propulsion performance under reflection mode. Multi pulse (ranged from 100 to 2000) tests are conducted on a double base propellant with the vacuum less than 10 Pa. The laser frequency is 20 kHz and two kinds of instantaneous power density 4.77x10{sup 6} W/cm{sup 2} and 2.39x10{sup 7} W/cm{sup 2} are used. It is found that the momentum coupling coefficient C{sub m} and the mean thrust F increases with the increasing pulse numbers, which is different to the previous work. By adjusting the irradiation time T, it is easy to get a large mean thrust, up to mN. When the energy density is the same, C{sub m}, I{sub sp}, F and {eta} increase with the increasing power density. Also I{sub sp} and {eta} are very low, laser ablation is insufficiently under the current condition. 3D Morphology of the ablation hole is obtained by confocal microscope for the first time.

• OSTI ID: 21612164
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1402, Issue 1; Conference: 7. international symposium on beamed energy propulsion, Ludwigsburg (Germany), 10-14 Apr 2011; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3657045; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ABLATION
COUPLING
ENERGY DENSITY
ENGINEERING
ION THRUSTERS
IRRADIATION
KHZ RANGE
MORPHOLOGY
PERFORMANCE
POWER DENSITY
PROPULSION
PROPULSION SYSTEMS
PULSES
REFLECTION
SATELLITES
SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS
SPACE
FREQUENCY RANGE
LASERS
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SOLID STATE LASERS
THRUSTERS