Spectral Energy Characteristics’ Study of Coaxial Ablative Pulsed Plasma Accelerator

Accelerators that can be used for small Cubesat-class spacecraft are currently gaining popularity. One of these accelerator types is an ablative pulsed plasma accelerator, which allows spacecraft to rotate at small angles, adjust the orbit, etc. The paper presents spectral characteristics studies of plasma radiation produced by ablative pulsed plasma discharge in vacuum. A coaxial ablative pulsed plasma source is a system of coaxial electrodes with POM-C dielectric located between them. Operation is based on a high-current pulsed discharge, energy invested in the discharge (5.6 J) is spent on dielectric ablation, dielectric mass ionization, acceleration and radiation. Radiation was recorded in the frontal and lateral directions through a quartz window using Solar S100 (200–1100 nm, resolution δ ~ 1 nm) spectrometer. During spectral analysis, emitting substances were identified, including atoms, ions and molecules, evaporating from the dielectric surface (C, O, H), electrodes (Cu) or being in the residual atmosphere (N), discharge dynamics were studied using a G5-54 pulse generator.