Study and diagnostics of the effect of emissive current variations in segmented electrode Hall thruster

Segmented electrodes, which are placed along the Hall thruster channel, were shown to affect thruster operation in several ways, whether the electrodes produce low emission current or high emission current. Measured by plume divergence, and the current utilization efficiency the performance of Hall thruster operation, even with only one power supply, can approach or surpass that of non segmented operation over a range of parameter regimes. In particular, the low gas flow rate can exhibit low plume divergence with low emissive electrodes. An increase of the emissive current from the electrode placed at the exit of the thruster channel can affect the axial electron current across the radial magnetic field. In addition, interior probe measurements indicated relatively strong changes in spatial distribution of plasma parameters in the whole thruster channel with the emission current. Interestingly, that these changes can be observed with floating and biased emissive electrode placed at the channel exit.