Variable operation of Hall thruster with multiple segmented electrodes

Technical Report · Mon Feb 07 00:00:00 EST 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/751019· OSTI ID:751019

Fisch, N J; Raitses, Y; Dorf, L A; Litvak, A A

Variable plasma jet velocity with low beam divergence over a range of mass flow rates can be achieved through segmented electrode operation of Hall plasma accelerator. With the use of just a cathode side electrode at the cathode potential, the beam divergence can be decreased substantially, at some cost in efficiency. However, the additional use of an anode side electrode retains the same reduced plume divergence, but at efficiencies comparable to the non-segmented operation. The high efficiency persists also when the anode side electrode is biased at an intermediate potential, thus producing two-stage Hall accelerator operation.

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH03073
• OSTI ID: 751019
• Report Number(s): PPPL-3432; TRN: AH200004%%38
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: 7 Feb 2000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
PLASMA JETS
PLASMA GUNS
ELECTRODES
OPERATION
ION THRUSTERS
PROPULSION SYSTEMS
HALL EFFECT