Secondary electron emission measurement of insulating materials for spacecraft

Abstract

We studied how to measure the secondary electron emission (SEE) of metal and insulating materials used for satellite thermal insulation or other such purposes. The SEE yields measurement is very important for analyzing charge accumulation on satellite surfaces due to the space environment because electron emission due to irradiated electrons influences the amount of surface charge. Therefore, we tried to measure the SEE yields. To measure SEE, we used an improved scanning electron microscope (SEM) system that has a beam-blanking unit and a Faraday cup. From this system, we can obtain the characteristics of the SEE yields from insulation materials irradiated by an electron beam with an energy of 600 eV to 5 keV. In this report, we introduce the SEE yields measurement results of reference materials (Au, Ag and quartz glass) and insulating materials. From those results, we discuss the characteristics of SEE that depends on each material. Furthermore, we also propose a future plan of SEE measurement for satellite materials.