Investigation of Field Structure and Electron Behavior in the Near-Field of Hall Thrusters

The formulation and preliminary results of a 3-D discrete electron transport simulation are presented. Assuming a magnetic and electric field distribution in the near-field of a Hall thruster, a leapfrog time-integrating method is utilized to track electrons launched from a simulated cathode to obtain statistics including estimates of the Hall parameter and anode/beam current ratios. It is shown that, disregarding collisions or instabilities in the near-field, the Hall parameter is on the order of two, and the anode/beam current is on the order of 0.1 to 0.2. The need for a complete mesh of potential data throughout the nearfield is highlighted. Results obtained with similar multi-step methods including the Adam’s Bashforth method and variations of the leapfrog method are also briefly mentioned.