激光等离子体推进技术因具有耦合系数高、冲量动态范围大,以及易实现数字化控制等诸多优势成为目前最具应用前景的推进技术之一。对目前国内该领域的研究进展作了简单介绍,重点对各种靶材的烧蚀特性及其优缺点进行了分析和对比。此外,还总结了等离子体推进中耦合系数和比冲的测量方法。

The laser plasma propulsion is a most prospective propulsion technology due to its unique advantages such as the high specific impulse, the large range of momentum thrust and the easily realized digital control. A review of the laser source, the theoretical model and the target material is made in this paper, including the progress of the laser plasma propulsion. For the laser source, the nanosecond and the microsecond laser pulses should be used together for their complementation nature. A two-dimensional model should be urgently developed, especially in a confined laser plasma propulsion. For the target material, the liquid as one of optimum target materials attracts much attention due to its higher coupling coefficient. To solve the problem of the low specific impulse due to the splashing behavior, the target properties, in particular, the viscosity are analyzed and a comparison is made among the target materials. A new energy-containing liquid material is discussed. Moreover, the parameter measurements of the coupling coefficient and the specific impulse are discussed. A new double probe beam device is introduced to measure the target momentum. Its measurement results are independent of the probe beam diameter and the target thickness.