Preliminary Results of Plasma Flow Measurements in a 2 kW Segmented Hall Thruster
Authors: Y. Raitses, D. Staack, A. Dunaevsky, L. Dorf, and N.J. Fisch
Date of PPPL Report: March 2003
Presented at: the 28th International Electric Propulsion Conference 2003 (17-21 March 2003, Toulouse, France). Proceedings to be published on CD-ROM that will be given to the participants on the first day of the conference.
A 2 kW Hall thruster was developed, built, and operated in an upgraded vacuum facility. The thruster performance and parameters of the plasma flow were measured by new diagnostics for plume measurements and plasma measurements inside the thruster channel. The thruster demonstrated efficient operation in terms of propellant and current utilization efficiencies in the input power range of 0.5-3.5 kW. Preliminary measurements of the ion energy spectra from the thruster axis region and the distribution of plasma parameters in the vicinity of the thruster exit are reported.