@inproceedings{ea8c1ef1409f4423a6e5ee560314a866,
title = "Performance studies of miniaturized cylindrical and annular hall thrusters",
abstract = "Conventional annular Hall thrusters do not scale efficiently to low power. An alternative approach, a 2.6 cm miniaturized cylindrical Hall thruster with a cusptype magnetic field distribution, was developed and studied. Its performance was compared to that of a conventional annular thruster of the same dimensions. The cylindrical thruster exhibits discharge characteristics similar to those of the annular thruster but has much higher propellant ionization efficiency. Significantly, a large fraction of multicharged xenon ions might be present in the outgoing ion flux generated by the cylindrical thruster. The operation of the cylindrical thruster is quieter than that of the annular thruster. The characteristic peak in the discharge current fluctuation spectrum at 50-60 kHz appears to be due to ionization instabilities. In the power range 50-300 W, the cylindrical and annular thrusters have comparable efficiencies (n=15-32%) and thrusts (T=2.5-12 mN). For the annular configuration, the voltage less than 200 V was not sufficient to sustain the discharge at low propellant flow rates. The cylindrical thruster can operate at voltages lower than 200V, which suggests that a cylindrical thruster might be designed to operate at even smaller power.",
author = "A. Smirnov and Y. Raitses and Fisch, {N. J.}",
year = "2002",
doi = "10.2514/6.2002-3823",
language = "English (US)",
isbn = "9781624101151",
series = "38th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit",
publisher = "American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc.",
booktitle = "38th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit",
note = "38th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit 2002 ; Conference date: 07-07-2002 Through 10-07-2002",
}