skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Optimized electrode placement along the channel of a Hall thruster for ion focusing

Journal Article · · Journal of Applied Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4862299· OSTI ID:22275739
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5]
  1. Power Engineering Institute, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044 (China)
  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001 (China)
  3. State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024 (China)
  4. College of Communication Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044 (China)
  5. School of Physics, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026 (China)

An optimal placement of the segmented electrode for increasing the lifetime of the Aton-type Hall thruster, i.e., reducing the plume divergence, is demonstrated using a 2D3V fully kinetic Particle-in-Cell method. Segmented electrodes, embedded near the ionization region of non-segmented case and biased above anode potential, lead to an increased separation between the ionization and acceleration regions and the formation of an efficient acceleration electric field configuration as potential lens. Due to this electrode placement, the sheath near the ceramic walls of the acceleration region is collapsed and an excellent ion beam focusing is demonstrated. The potential contour pockets around the electrodes and the sheath collapse phenomenon are also discussed.

OSTI ID:
22275739
Journal Information:
Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, Issue 3; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English