Kinetic study of wall collisions in a coaxial Hall discharge.

Abstract

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) inside the discharge channel. Experimental time-average plasma property data from a laboratory Hall discharge are used to calculate the electron conductivity and to estimate the rate of wall-loss collisions. The electron Boltzmann equation is then solved in the local field limit, using the experimental results as inputs. The equation takes into account ionization and wall collisions, including secondary electrons produced at the wall. Local electron balances are used to calculate the sheath potential at the insulator walls. Results show an EEDF depleted at high energy due to electron loss to the walls. The calculated EEDFs agree well with experimental electron temperature data when the experimentally determined effective collision frequency is used for electron momentum transport. The electron wall-loss and wall-return frequencies are extremely low compared to those predicted by a Maxwellian of equal average energy. The very low frequency of wall collisions suggests that secondary electrons do not contribute to cross-field transport. This conclusion holds despite significant experimental uncertainty.