Beam Characteristics and Lifetime Prediction of Carbon-Carbon Ion Optics System

Severe sputtering erosion of ion optics system of ion thrusters under high-energy ion beam bombardment leads to the structural failure and decrease of the thruster's lifetime.In this paper, based on PIC-MCC method, a two-dimensional axisymmetric ion optics dynamic erosion model is established. The change of erosion profile with time in dual-grids ion optics system is studied and the lifetime of ion optics system is predicted. The dependence of CEX process□focus characterize and the final lifetime of the ion optics system on geometric parameters such as grid aperture, thickness, grid spacing and grid voltage were systematically studied.The obtained influence laws of the above design parameters of ion optics system on the lifetime of ion optics system in this paper provide guidance for the design of long lifetime ion thrusters.