Phenomena of incomplete ferroelectric surface discharge

The operation of ferroelectric plasma sources under the application of driving pulses with different amplitudes (4-40 kV) was studied. It was found that the dense plasma formation during the fast fall (a few tens of nanoseconds) of the driving pulse is accompanied by the generation of a highly diverging ~180^° neutral flow with velocity ~7·10⁷cm/s and charged micro-particles, in addition to the electron/ion flows studied in earlier research. It was shown that the velocity and intensity of the generated neutral flow remained the same for different parameters of the driving pulse. A model for the neutrals and micro-particles emission based on Coulomb micro-explosions of ferroelectric ceramics is suggested. The application of ferroelectric plasma source as a promising micro-thruster is discussed as well.