COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF P-50 QSPA OPERATION WITH VARIOUS GASES

P-50 QSPA operating regimes with various working gases (hydrogen, heli um, nitrogen, and argon) were investigated. Local characteristics of p lasma flow in the QSPA acceleration channel were shown not to depend o n the gas choice. A chain of electrode-detached current eddies was obs erved in the power-recuperation stage of the QSPA discharge in heavy g ases. Both the plasma density and electron temperature were experiment ally found to be independent of the atomic weight of the working gas. The QSPA-generated plasma flow velocity was shown to depend on the wor king gas atomic weight according to the formula v similar to H/root M( i). This dependence is in good agreement with the theory of plasma flo w in profiled channels.