Role of superconducting shields in electrodynamic propulsion

An electrodynamic tether can propel a spacecraft through a planetary magnetized plasma without using propellant. In the classical embodiment of an electrodynamic tether, the ambient magnetic fleld exerts a Lorentz force on the current along the tether, the ambient plasma providing circuit closure for the current A suggested propulsion scheme would hypothetically eliminate tether performance dependence on the plasma density by using a full wire loop to close the current circuit, and a superconductor to shield a loop segment from the external uniform magnetic fleld and cancel the Lorentz force on that segment. Here, we use basic electromagnetic laws to explain how such a scheme cannot produce a net force. Because there is no net current in the superconducting shield, the circulation of the magnetic field along a closed line outside the full cross section, in its plane, is just due to the current flowing in the loop segment. The presence of the superconducting shield simply moves the Lorentz force from the shielded loop segment to the shield itself and, as a result, the total magnetic force, acting on full loop plus shield, remains zero.

Thermal shields for heat loss reduction in Siemens-type CVD reactors

The use of thermal shields to reduce radiation heat loss in Siemens-type CVD reactors is analyzed, both theoretically and experimentally. The potential savings from the use of the thermal shields is first explored using a radiation heat model that takes emissivity variations with wavelength into account, which is important for materials that do not behave as grey bodies. The theoretical calculations confirm that materials with lower surface emissivity lead to higher radiation savings. Assuming that radiation heat loss is responsible for around 50% of the total power consumption, a reduction of 32.9% and 15.5% is obtained if thermal shields with constant emissivities of 0.3 and 0.7 are considered, respectively. Experiments considering different thermal shields are conducted in a laboratory CVD reactor, confirming that the real materials do not behave as grey bodies, and proving that significant energy savings in the polysilicon deposition process are obtained. Using silicon as a thermal shield leads to energy savings of between 26.5-28.5%. For wavelength-dependent emissivities, the model shows that there are significant differences in radiation heat loss, of around 25%, when compared to that of constant emissivity. The results of the model highlight the importance of having reliable data on the emissivities within the relevant range of wavelengths, and at deposition temperatures, which remains a pending issue.