Theory for the anomalous electron transport in Hall effect thrusters. II. Kinetic model

• DOI: 10.1063/1.4948496
• Publication Date: 2016-05-10T00:30:17Z
• Authors: T. Lafleur; S. D. Baalrud; P. Chabert
• Keywords: Kinetic Theory; Electron scattering

In Paper I [T. Lafleur et al., Phys. Plasmas 23, 053502 (2016)], we demonstrated (using particle-in-cell simulations) the definite correlation between an anomalously high cross-field electron transport in Hall effect thrusters (HETs), and presence of azimuthal electrostatic instabilities leading to enhanced scattering. Here, present a kinetic theory that predicts scattering rate provides mobility is good agreement with experiment. The large drift velocity HETs drives strong instability quickly saturates due combination ion-wave trapping wave-convection, many orders magnitude larger than expected from classical diffusion theory. addition magnetic field strength, B0, this function plasma properties (such as density) therefore does not, general, follow simple 1/B02 or 1/B0 scaling laws.