Electron cross-field transport in a miniaturized cylindrical Hall thruster

• Published in: IEEE transactions on plasma science Vol. 34; no. 2; pp. 132 - 141
• Main Authors: Smirnov, A.N., Raitses, Y., Fisch, N.J.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.04.2006; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Acceleration; Annular; Bohm diffusion; Conductivity; Discharge; Electromagnetism; electron transport; Electrons; Exact sciences and technology; Frequency; Hall discharge; Hall thrusters; Ion and plasma propulsion; Langmuir probes; Magnetic field measurement; Magnetic fields; Optimization; Particle physics; Physics; Physics of gases, plasmas and electric discharges; Physics of plasmas and electric discharges; Plasma devices; plasma propulsion; Plasma transport processes; Probes; Propulsion; Tanks; Thrusters; Transport; turbulence; Plasma turbulence; Hall effect devices; Hall discharge; Thrusters; Bohm diffusion; Electron collisions; Bohm criterion; turbulence; Electric propulsion; Reviews; Plasma instability; Electron-surface impact; Collision frequency; Ion propulsion; Langmuir probes; electron transport; plasma propulsion; Plasma transport processes; Crossed fields; Ion thrusters
• ISSN: 0093-3813; 1939-9375
• DOI: 10.1109/TPS.2006.872185

Conventional annular Hall thrusters become inefficient when scaled to low power. Cylindrical Hall thrusters, which have lower surface-to-volume ratio, are more promising for scaling down. They presently exhibit performance comparable with conventional annular Hall thrusters. The present paper gives a review of the experimental and numerical investigations of electron cross-field transport in the 2.6-cm miniaturized cylindrical Hall thruster (100-W power level). We show that, in order to explain the discharge current observed for the typical operating conditions, the electron anomalous collision frequency /spl nu//sub B/ has to be on the order of the Bohm value, /spl nu//sub B/ /spl ap/ /spl omega//sub c//16. The contribution of electron-wall collisions to cross-field transport is found to be insignificant. The optimal regimes of thruster operation at low background pressure (below 10/sup -5/ torr) in the vacuum tank appear to be different from those at higher pressure (/spl sim/10/sup -4/ torr).