Variable operation of Hall thruster with multiple segmented electrodes

Variable plasma jet velocity with low beam divergence over a range of mass flow rates can be achieved through segmented electrode operation of the Hall plasma accelerator. With the use of just a cathode side electrode at the cathode potential, the beam divergence can be decreased substantially, at some cost in efficiency. However, the additional use of an anode side electrode retains the same reduced plume divergence, but at efficiencies comparable to the nonsegmented operation. The high efficiency persists also when the anode side electrode is biased at an intermediate potential, thus producing two-stage Hall accelerator operation.