Regular Article

Simulation of plasma dynamics during discharge ignition in Hall thruster

Plasma Propulsion Lab, Institute of Advanced Power, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, P.R. China

^a e-mail: weiliqiu@hit.edu.cn

Received: 2 December 2018
Received in final form: 10 January 2019
Published online: 14 March 2019

Abstract

Because of the lack of effective methods to measure the evolution of plasma in the channel of a Hall thruster, the dynamic behavior of the Hall thruster, the ignition process, was investigated by a two-dimensional axisymmetric fully kinetic particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision model. The corresponding evolutions of plasma density, electric potential, and neutral density during the ignition process are discussed. The results which show a pulse duration of 15 μs, a peak current value of 142 A and a stable oscillation frequency of 20 kHz, indicate that during the ignition process, the anode current rises rapidly with the increase of the plasma density, the consumption of the neutrals, and the change of the position where the main potential drops. The model can provide a new and valid method to analyze the ignition of the Hall thruster.