Statistical Characteristics of Emission from Stationary Plasma Thrusters Operating with Various Propellants

The procedure of experimental determination of statistical characteristics of own electromagnetic radiation of a laboratory mock-up of an SPT-70 stationary plasma thruster developed by the Research Institute of Applied Mechanics and Electrodynamics of the Moscow Aviation Institute is described. The study investigated the temporal complex implementation of the processes of radiation of the SPT-70 with a sampling duration of 1 ms and an analysis band of 140 MHz for characteristic central frequencies of 0.9, 1.050, 1.200, and 1.350 GHz (discharge power of 600 W, horizontal polarization) when working on various working bodies. The conducted studies allowed to obtain estimates of the statistical characteristics of the SPT-70 radiation for prospective working bodies The new results should be attributed to the fact that the obtained distribution laws for the common-phase and quadrature components of the complex envelope process of radiation differ significantly from the Gaussian one. As for the distribution of the amplitude envelope process, in general, there is a difference from the Rayleigh distribution law. In the transition from xenon to krypton, the degree of negativity and the difference from Rayleigh’s law increase. At the same time, the law of phase distribution of the complex envelope process is close to uniform and invariant to the type of working body.