为了寻求日益昂贵的电推力器工质氙气的替代品,探讨氩气作为电子回旋共振离子推力器工质的适用性,采用混合PIC方法模拟了氩等离子体在栅极光学系统中输运过程,分析了氩离子束流的聚焦效果、氩等离子体的空间分布和流动特性。结果表明:氩离子束流在已有栅极系统中具有良好的聚焦效果;束流中CEX离子仅占离子总数的万分之一,影响较小;氩气作为工质时,离子喷射速度为75km/s,加速栅极后回流速度为38km/s,与电动力学理论预估值一致。 In order to find an alternative to xenon for the increasingly expensive thrusters, the applicability of argon as the working substance for the electron cyclotron resonance thrusters is discussed. The mixed PIC method is used to simulate the transport process of argon plasma in the grid optical system. The focusing effect of argon ion beam, the spatial distribution of argon plasma and the flow characteristics were analyzed. The results show that argon ion beam has a good focusing effect in the existing grid system. The CEX ion in the beam only accounts for one ten-ten-thousandth of the total ions, and the effect is small. When argon is used as the working fluid, the ion jet velocity is 75km / s, and the backflow velocity after accelerating gate is 38km / s, which is consistent with the electrokinetic theory.