Fast camera imaging of hall thruster ignition

TY - JOUR

T1 - Fast camera imaging of hall thruster ignition

AU - Ellison, C. L.

AU - Raitses, Y.

AU - Fisch, N. J.

N1 - Funding Information: Manuscript received December 1, 2010; accepted February 16, 2011. Date of publication April 5, 2011; date of current version November 9, 2011. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC02-09CH11466. The authors are with the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08543 USA (e-mail: [email protected]). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2011.2121925

PY - 2011/11

Y1 - 2011/11

N2 - Hall thrusters provide efficient space propulsion by electrostatic acceleration of ions. Rotating electron clouds in the thruster overcome the space charge limitations of other methods. Images of the thruster start-up, taken with a fast camera, reveal a bright ionization period which settles into steady-state operation over 50 μs. The cathode introduces azimuthal asymmetry, which persists for about 30 μs into the ignition.

AB - Hall thrusters provide efficient space propulsion by electrostatic acceleration of ions. Rotating electron clouds in the thruster overcome the space charge limitations of other methods. Images of the thruster start-up, taken with a fast camera, reveal a bright ionization period which settles into steady-state operation over 50 μs. The cathode introduces azimuthal asymmetry, which persists for about 30 μs into the ignition.

KW - Plasma devices

KW - plasma diagnostics

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/81255141975

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/81255141975#tab=citedBy

U2 - 10.1109/TPS.2011.2121925

DO - 10.1109/TPS.2011.2121925

M3 - Article

SN - 0093-3813

VL - 39

SP - 2950

EP - 2951

JO - IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science

JF - IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science

IS - 11 PART 1

M1 - 5741860

ER -