The paper describes activities of the institute of Physics and plasma technology to establish a reliable plasma diagnostic facility for the characterization of electric thrusters. The probe diagnostic setup, which includes Langmuir probes, emissive probes, and a retarding potential analyser, has been enhanced with a non-intrusive optical diagnostic setup incorporating Rayleigh and Thomson scattering techniques. The sensitivity limit of the optical diagnostics was analysed and improved. Preliminary results from measurements on the low ionization degree plasma of a capacitively coupled radiofrequency thruster are presented.    «

The paper describes activities of the institute of Physics and plasma technology to establish a reliable plasma diagnostic facility for the characterization of electric thrusters. The probe diagnostic setup, which includes Langmuir probes, emissive probes, and a retarding potential analyser, has been enhanced with a non-intrusive optical diagnostic setup incorporating Rayleigh and Thomson scattering techniques. The sensitivity limit of the optical diagnostics was analysed and improved. Prelimina...    »