How Does the Laser Impact the Functioning of an Ion Thruster?

[Kainchild]

Exactly how does the ion thruster rely on the laser in it's process exactly. I have been told that the ion thruster uses a laser but I wasn't given anymore information on what it exactly does.

 

[Drakkith]

I looked up ion thruster on Wikipedia and didn't see anything about a laser. Perhaps you misheard?

 

[Kainchild]

I looked up ion thruster on Wikipedia and didn't see anything about a laser. Perhaps you misheard?

Here's where I saw it:
http://www.sumobrain.com/patents/jp/Rf-type-ion-thruster/JP62178779.html

Please read it and tell me if I miss read it.

There's also this too that was on wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_ion_thruster

 

[russ_watters]

It looks like from that abstract that the laser is just used to heat the fuel to ionize it. Note, that's different from how the wiki description works, which uses electron bombardment to ionize the fuel.