Measurement and Evaluation of the Atomic Oxygen Beam Parameters and Material Erosion

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Measurement and Evaluation of the Atomic Oxygen Beam Parameters and Material Erosion

Horodetsky, S. / Issoupov, V. / Verba, V. / Kleiman, J.

Abstract Atomic Oxygen fluxes are widely used for accelerated ground base testing of materials used for spacecraft. It is valuable to do this testing with Atomic Oxygen fluxes reaching realistic space environment values (oxygen atom velocity of 7 km/s). This testing is usually done with the help of a laser-detonation fast atomic oxygen (AO) source. Each beam usually contains Atomic Oxygen (90 %) as well as molecular oxygen and Ionic and Electronic Components which are produced during the generation of Atomic Oxygen. Molecular oxygen, under such residual pressures, is unlikely to contribute to physical/chemical changes of sample morphology. However, there is the possibility that the Ionic Component, given that it has the sufficient parameters, can significantly affect the sample morphology. A study was conducted to determine the influence of the ionic component on the morphology of samples irradiated in the AO system. Based on the conducted experiments it was confirmed that the atomic oxygen beams produced by the laser-detonation fast atomic oxygen source, indeed, have an Ionic Component. The energy of the Ionic Component is approximately 7.25 eV and the current is approximately 3 × 10−7 A. It has been determined that the Ionic Component has no significant effect on sample morphology, which suggests that there is no need to suppress it.