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Electron Transport and Ion Acceleration in a Low-Power Cylindrical Hall Thruster
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Smirnov, Alexander |
| Copyright Year | 2004 |
| Abstract | Conventional annular Hall thrusters become inefficient when scaled to low power. Cylindrical Hall thrusters, which have lower surface-to-volume ratio, are therefore more promising for scaling down. They presently exhibit performance comparable with conventional annular Hall thrusters. Electron cross-field transport and ion acceleration in a 2.6 cm miniaturized cylindrical Hall thruster (100 W power level) are studied through the analysis of experimental data and Monte Carlo simulations of electron and ion dynamics in the thruster channel. The numerical model takes into account elastic and inelastic electron collisions with atoms, electron-wall collisions, including secondary electron emission, and Bohm diffusion. We show that in order to explain the observed discharge current, the electron anomalous collision frequency νB has to be on the order of the Bohm value, νB≈ωc/16. The contribution of electron-wall collisions to cross-field transport is found to be insignificant. The plasma density peak observed at the axis of the 2.6 cm cylindrical Hall thruster is likely to be due to the convergent flux of ions, which are born in the annular part of the channel and accelerated towards the thruster axis. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://htx.pppl.gov/publication/Conference/CHT_AIAA_2004_4103.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc780049/m2/1/high_res_d/828205.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
