Electrostatic analyzer with a 3-D instantaneous field of view for fast measurements of plasma distribution functions in space

We describe the concept and properties of a new electrostatic optic which aims to provide a 2π sr instantaneous field of view to characterize space plasmas. It consists of a set of concentric toroidal electrodes that form a number of independent energy-selective channels. Charged particles are deflected toward a common imaging planar detector. The full 3-D distribution function of charged particles is obtained through a single energy sweep. Angle and energy resolution of the optics depends on the number of toroidal electrodes, on their radii of curvature, on their spacing, and on the angular aperture of the channels. We present the performances, as derived from numerical simulations, of an initial implementation of this concept that would fit the need of many space plasma physics applications. The proposed instrument has 192 entrance windows corresponding to eight polar channels each with 24 azimuthal sectors. The initial version of this 3-D plasma analyzer may cover energies from a few eV up to 30 keV, typically with a channel-dependent energy resolution varying from 10% to 7%. The angular acceptance varies with the direction of the incident particle from 3° to 12°. With a total geometric factor of two sensor heads reaching ~0.23 cm² sr eV/eV, this “donut” shape analyzer has enough sensitivity to allow very fast measurements of plasma distribution functions in most terrestrial and planetary environments on three-axis stabilized as well as on spinning satellites.