Plasma-sheath instability in Hall thrusters due to periodic modulation of the energy of secondary electrons in cyclotron motion

نویسندگان

  • D. Sydorenko
  • A. Smolyakov
  • I. Kaganovich
  • Y. Raitses
چکیده

Particle-in-cell simulation of Hall thruster plasmas reveals a plasma-sheath instability manifesting itself as a rearrangement of the plasma sheath near the thruster channel walls accompanied by a sudden change of many discharge parameters. The instability develops when the sheath current as a function of the sheath voltage is in the negative conductivity regime. The major part of the sheath current is produced by beams of secondary electrons counter-streaming between the walls. The negative conductivity is the result of nonlinear dependence of beam-induced secondary electron emission on the plasma potential. The intensity of such emission is defined by the beam energy. The energy of the beam in crossed axial electric and radial magnetic fields is a quasiperiodical function of the phase of cyclotron rotation, which depends on the radial profile of the potential and the thruster channel width. There is a discrete set of stability intervals determined by the final phase of the cyclotron rotation of secondary electrons. As a result, a small variation of the thruster channel width may result in abrupt changes of plasma parameters if the plasma state jumps from one stability interval to another. © 2008 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2918333

برای دانلود رایگان متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Kinetic study of wall collisions in a coaxial Hall discharge.

Coaxial Hall discharges (also known as Hall thrusters, stationary plasma thrusters, and closed-drift accelerators) are cross-field plasma sources under development for space propulsion applications. The importance of the electron-wall interaction to the Hall discharge operation is studied the through analysis of experimental data and simulation of the electron energy distribution function (EEDF...

متن کامل

General cause of sheath instability identified for low collisionality plasmas in devices with secondary electron emission.

A condition for sheath instability due to secondary electron emission (SEE) is derived for low collisionality plasmas. When the SEE coefficient of the electrons bordering the depleted loss cone in energy space exceeds unity, the sheath potential is unstable to a negative perturbation. This result explains three different instability phenomena observed in Hall thruster simulations including a ne...

متن کامل

Boundary conditions for plasma fluid models at the magnetic presheath entrance

Related Articles Experimental investigation of virtual cathode sheath in the presence of secondary electrons produced by streaming ions Phys. Plasmas 19, 113511 (2012) Valid flow combinations for stable sheath in a magnetized multiple ion species plasma Phys. Plasmas 19, 113507 (2012) Properties of a warm plasma collisional sheath in an oblique magnetic field Phys. Plasmas 19, 113504 (2012) Inv...

متن کامل

Modulational instability of dust ion acoustic waves in astrophysical dusty plasmas with non thermal electrons

  Propagation of dust ion acoustic waves in plasmas composed of nonthermal distributed electrons and stationary dust particles is investigated. Nonlinear Schrdinger equation is derived to describe small amplitude waves, using the reduction perturbation technique. Modulation instability of dust ion acoustic waves is analysed for this system. Parametric investigation indicates that growth rate of...

متن کامل

Controlling Sheath and Plasma Properties due to Effects of Electron-Induced Secondary Electron Emission

Plasma-surface interactions in the presence of strong secondary electron emission (SEE) have been theoretically studied in the context of numerous plasma applications such as diverters, surface discharges, dusty plasmas, plasma thrusters, and plasma processing. The electron flux to the wall is determined by the electron velocity distribution function (EVDF) and by the sheath potential, which ar...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2008