Design and characterization of nozzles and solid propellants for IR laser propulsion

In this article, we present an experimental study of the effect of conical section nozzles coupled to solid targets on laser ablation propulsion. The impulse produced on the target by laser ablation was measured in terms of the coupling coefficient C _m using a piezoelectric (PZT) sensor. The standard deviation of the PZT signal was used as an estimator of the transferred impulse. The ablation was performed with a TEA CO₂ laser at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. The targets were pellets of 90/10 % w/w Zn/CaCO₃ concentration ratio. Aluminum nozzles with conical section were coupled to these propellant pellets. A comparative study of the variation of C _m using nozzles of different inlet and outlet diameters of the ejected material as well as of different heights was made. The results demonstrate that for the pellet composition analyzed, as the nozzle’s height increases and its diameter decreases improvements up to 250 % respect to the target without nozzle are obtained. These are promising results for the potential development of laser ablation microthrusters.