Evidence of Collisionless Shocks in a Hall Thruster Plume

Abstract

Triple Langmuir probes and emissive probes are used to measure the electron number density, electron temperature, and plasma potential downstream of a low-power Hall thruster. The results show a high density plasma core with elevated electron temperature and plasma potential along the thruster centerline. These properties are believed to be due to collisionless shocks formed as a result of the ion/ion acoustic instability. A simple model is presented that shows the existence of a collisionless shock to be consistent with the observed phenomena.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 25, 2003
Accession Number
ADA414913

Entities

People

  • Alec D. Gallimore
  • Brian E. Beal
  • William A. Hargus

Organizations

  • University of Michigan

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Electric Propulsion
  • Electrons
  • Engineering
  • Far Field
  • Frequency
  • Hall Thrusters
  • High Density
  • Kinetic Energy
  • Langmuir Probes
  • Laser Induced Fluorescence
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Measurement
  • Military Research
  • Near Field
  • Thrusters

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerospace Propulsion Engineering.
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster