Growth mechanism and characteristics of electron drift instability in Hall thruster with different propellant types

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/acf9e5

Abstract The existence of a significant electron drift instability (EDI) in the Hall thruster is considered as one of the possible causes of the abnormal increase in axial electron mobility near the outlet of the channel. In recent years, extensive simulation research on the characteristics of EDI has been conducted, but the excitation mechanism and growth mechanism of EDI in linear stage and nonlinear stage remain unclear. In this work, a one-dimensional PIC model in the azimuthal direction of the thruster near-exit region is established to gain further insights into the mechanism of the EDI in detail, and the effects of different types of propellants on EDI characteristics are discussed. The changes in axial electron transport caused by EDI under different types of propellants and electromagnetic field strengths are also examined. The results indicate that EDI undergoes a short linear growth phase before transitioning to the nonlinear phase and finally reaching saturation through the ion Landau damping. The EDI drives a significant ion heating in the azimuthal direction through electron--ion friction before entering the quasi-steady state, which increases the axial mobility of the electrons. Using lighter atomic weight propellant can effectively suppress the oscillation amplitude of EDI, but it will increase the linear growth rate, frequency, and phase velocity of EDI. Compared with the classical mobility, the axial electron mobility under the EDI increases by three orders of magnitude, which is consistent with experimental phenomena. The change of propellant type is insufficient to significantly change the axial electron mobility. It is also found that the collisions between electrons and neutral gasescan significantly affect the axial electron mobility under the influence of EDI, and lead the strength of the electric field to increase and the strength of the magnetic field to decrease, thereby both effectively suppressing the axial transport of electrons.

Keywords: Hall thruster electron drift instability axial electron mobility particle-in-cell simulation

Received: 19 July 2023
Revised: 01 September 2023
Accepted manuscript online: 15 September 2023

PACS:	52.75.Di	(Ion and plasma propulsion)
	94.30.cq	(MHD waves, plasma waves, and instabilities)
	52.65.-y	(Plasma simulation)
	52.65.Rr	(Particle-in-cell method)

Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11975062 and 11605021) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 3132023192).

Corresponding Authors: Ping Duan
E-mail: duanping591@sohu.com

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Long Chen(陈龙), Zi-Chen Kan(阚子晨), Wei-Fu Gao(高维富), Ping Duan(段萍), Jun-Yu Chen(陈俊宇), Cong-Qi Tan(檀聪琦), and Zuo-Jun Cui(崔作君) Growth mechanism and characteristics of electron drift instability in Hall thruster with different propellant types 2024 Chin. Phys. B 33 015203

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Growth mechanism and characteristics of electron drift instability in Hall thruster with different propellant types

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