Discharge characteristics of hall current accelerators

Y. Raitses, J. Ashkenazy

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

A simplified analysis of the discharge characteristics of Hall current accelerators has shown that at fixed discharge voltage and mass flow rate, the accelerator channel length can affect the efficiency of the ionization process and, as a result, the V-I characteristics of this type of device. In order to study this effect, an experimental Hall current accelerator was operated in a broad range of Xe gas mass flow rate and discharge voltage values with two channel lengths. It was observed experimentally that the channel length affects the dependence of the discharge current on the magnetic field strength and the mass flow rate. Measurements of the total ion current generated by the accelerator have demonstrated that at fixed channel length, the ionization efficiency is changed when the mass flow rate is varied. The obtained results have indicated that in designing a Hall current accelerator for specific operating conditions, in addition to the magnetic field distribution and the channel height [1], the channel length has to be optimized too.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages492-496
Number of pages5
StatePublished - 1996
Externally publishedYes
EventProceedings of the 1996 17th International Symposium on Discharges and Electrical Insulation in Vacuum, ISDEIV. Part 1 (of 2) - Berkeley, CA, USA
Duration: Jul 21 1996Jul 26 1996

Conference

ConferenceProceedings of the 1996 17th International Symposium on Discharges and Electrical Insulation in Vacuum, ISDEIV. Part 1 (of 2)
CityBerkeley, CA, USA
Period7/21/967/26/96

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Engineering

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