MIT News  July 27, 2022 Researchers at MIT designed, fabricated and characterized digitally manufactured, compact retarding potential analyzers (RPAs) multi-electrode instruments that can be used as in-orbit mass spectrometers and as on-ground/in-orbit ion energy analyzers. The RPA electrode housing, which is the most critical component of the RPA, was additively manufactured in a printable glass-ceramic via vat polymerization, resulting in non-porous, high-temperature compatible, and high-vacuum compatible hardware. Four different RPA designs were synthesized to probe the ionosphere (design with floating grid alignment at the aperture level) and laboratory plasmas (designs with floating grid aperture alignment at the cluster level). Simulations […]