共鳴光照射による熱電子コンバータのプラズマ特性

Abstract

A thermionic energy converter is a generator that directly converts heat into electricity. At the low temperature operation, the converter output is not enough for the practical application. Irradiating the resonance light to the converter filled with cesium gas, the output characteristics are much improved since ionized cesium atom neutralizes the space charge. To investigate the plasma parameter in the converter, a single probe is inserted and the resonance light is irradiated. It is found that an electron density is the order of (10)^<-17>m^<-3>, an electron temperature is 2000&acd;3000K.