Observation of a high-energy tail in ion energy distribution in the cylindrical Hall thruster plasma

Journal Article · Wed Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4897178· OSTI ID:22299714

Lim, Youbong; Kim, Holak; Choe, Wonho; Lee, Seung Hun ^[1]; Seon, Jongho ^[2]; Lee, Hae June ^[3]

---

1. Department of Physics, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701 (Korea, Republic of)
2. School of Space Research, Kyung Hee University, 1732 Deokyoungdaero, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do 446-701 (Korea, Republic of)
3. Department of Electrical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busandaehak-ro 63beon-gil, Geumjeong-gu, Busan 609-735 (Korea, Republic of)

A novel method is presented to determine populations and ion energy distribution functions (IEDFs) of individual ion species having different charge states in an ion beam from the measured spectrum of an E × B probe. The inversion of the problem is performed by adopting the iterative Tikhonov regularization method with the characteristic matrices obtained from the calculated ion trajectories. In a cylindrical Hall thruster plasma, an excellent agreement is observed between the IEDFs by an E × B probe and those by a retarding potential analyzer. The existence of a high-energy tail in the IEDF is found to be mainly due to singly charged Xe ions, and is interpreted in terms of non-linear ion acceleration.

• OSTI ID: 22299714
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 10; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ACCELERATION
CHARGE STATES
CYLINDRICAL CONFIGURATION
ENERGY SPECTRA
HIGH ROOMS
ION BEAMS
ITERATIVE METHODS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PLASMA
PROBES
THRUSTERS
XENON IONS