PPPL-4058 is available in <a href="PPPL-4058.pdf">pdf</a> format (696 KB).

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<b>Space Charge Saturated Sheath Regime and Electron Temperature Saturation in Hall Thrusters</b>
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<b>Authors:</b> Y. Raitses, D. Staack, A. Smirnov, and N.J. Fisch
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<b>Date of PPPL Report:</b> March 2005
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<b>Published in:</b> Physics of Plasmas <b>12</b>:073507 (July 2005) (10 pages)</p>


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Secondary electron emission in Hall thrusters is predicted to lead to space charge saturated wall sheaths resulting in enhanced power losses in the thruster channel. Analysis of experimentally obtained electron-wall collision frequency suggests that the electron temperature saturation, which occurs at high discharge voltages, appears to be caused by a decrease of the Joule heating rather than by the enhancement of the electron energy loss at the walls due to a strong secondary electron emission.



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