ISSN 1064 2269, Journal of Communications Technology and Electronics, 2012, Vol. 57, No. 4, pp. 419423.

Pleiades Publishing, Inc., 2012. Original Russian Text A.S. Chikhachev, 2012, published in Radiotekhnika i Elektronika, 2012, Vol. 57, No. 4, pp. 457461.

MICROWAVE ELECTRONICS

Acceleration of Heavy Ions in a Thruster

A. S. Chikhachev
Received April 25, 2011

AbstractThe acceleration of heavy ions in a Hall thruster is analyzed. The numerical solutions to the 1D hydrodynamic equations that describe the three component system (neutral particles, electrons, and ions) are obtained. The conditions for the collisionless motion of ions, ion acceleration in the presence of the self consistent electric field, and electron diffusion across the magnetic field are considered. The self consistent field is calculated using the Poisson equation. The absence of singularity in the case when the ion velocity coincides with the velocity of ion sound is demonstrated. The critical magnetic field above which the propa gation of ion beam is impossible is determined. DOI: 10.1134/S1064226912020039

INTRODUCTION Recent interest in the experimental [1] and theo retical [25] study of the Hall thruster has been driven mainly by its application as a low thrust engine in space. The analysis from [24] under the conditions for the neutrality of the system ni = ne (ni and ne are ion and electron densities, respectively) shows that the stationary hydrodynamic equations describing the behavior of the system yield singularity when the ion flow velocity is equal to the velocity of ion sound. The results from [5] show the absence of the singularity in the case when the flow velocity is equal to the ion sound velocity if the exact condition for neutrality is not satisfied (ne ni) and the Poisson equation is used for the electric field. Normally, the Coulomb collisions of electrons are disregarded in comparison with electron collisions with neutral atoms in the analysis of the Hall thruster. In this work, we present the equations that take into account the Coulomb scattering and obtain the corre sponding numerical solutions. 1. BASIC EQUATIONS We present the equations that describe the behavior of 1D beam in the presence of the longitudinal electric d field E z = and axisymmetric magnetic field Hr at dz H r H z . The equation of the dynamics of electrons that move in the diffusion regime is written as

collisions, respectively; V is the thermal velocity of electrons; Te, e, and m are electron temperature, charge, and mass, respectively; n0 is the density of neutral atoms; c = eH is the cyclotron frequency; mc and is the velocity of light. The continuity equation for ions is written as

d ( nV i i) = nen0, dz

(2)

where ni, Vi are ion density and velocity, respectively; = VTe is the specific rate of the generation of parti cles due to the ionization of neutral atoms; and is the ionization cross section. The equation for the momenta of cold ions can be represented as [5]

MV dVi + e d = Mn (V V ) n , ni i 0 i at e dz dz

(3)

where M is ion mass and Vat is the flow velocity of neu tral atoms. The equation of the flow conservation that takes into account the burning out of neutral gas is written as

Q = ( n0Vat + nV i i ), AM

(4)

Vez =

e coll d 1 d (Tene ) + , 2 mc dz ene dz

(1)

where Q is the gas flow and is the area of the trans verse cross section. We also employ the condition for the constancy of the discharge current

where coll = n0VT e tr + nV i T e ie + neVT e ee is the colli sion rate; tr is the transport cross section of scattering by neutral particles; ie and ee are the cross sections of the Coulomb electronion and electronelectron

Id = ( nV i i + neVe ) , Ae
where Id is the discharge current.

(5)

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420

CHIKHACHEV

2. PARAMETERS OF THE PROBLEM Under the conditions that are close to the real exper I imental conditions form [1], we assume that d = 6 Ae 1018 1/(cm2 s), the mass flow is Q = 4 1018 1/(cm2 s), AM and the input flow velocity of atoms is Vat = 104 cm/s. We also assume that = 6 eV. In this case, the ion sound velocity in the plasma of singly ionized Xe 2Te atoms is s = = 2.95 105 cm/s. Following the M approach from [6], we represent the density of parti cles in units of n*, , which is determined by the dis I charge current (n* = d = 2.04 1013 cm3), and eAcs represent the velocity in units of s. We use the results from [6] to determine the collision cross sections. The cross section of electron scattering by atom is given by e0 ( )
1.1 2 12exp 6.6 2 10 16 cm 2, = + 2 1 + 0.0045 where is the electron energy in electronvolts. In the case under study, the mean energy is about 6 eV, so that the scattering cross section is e0 7.2 1015 cm2. The ionization cross section at > I (I is the ionization potential) is

dimensionless density is = n , and the dimensionless n* velocity is = V . We also introduce the dimensionless cs Q gas flow q = . In terms of such variables, AMn*cs Eqs. (1)(5) are written as

2 i

+ U ' = 2 0 e ( i at ) , i

'e ec =2m + U ', M *** ( 0 + i i + e e ) e

2

(6)

( ii )' = e 0, 0at + i = q, ee + ii = 1.
In these equations, i,e are the ratios of the Coulomb scattering cross sections by ions and electrons to the cross section of scattering by atoms. Potential U satisfies the Poisson equation

U '' = ( e i ) ,
where the dimensionless parameter is =

(7)

1 + 0.0032 ( I ) In the system under study, the ionization is due to the Maxwell tail particles at > I. Therefore, we obtain the following result for the averaged cross section at Te 6 eV:
1.77

() =

16 ( I )

1.28

10

18

cm .

exp ()d Te

exp d Te

0.38 10 16 cm 2.

= 2 * M 4.26 107. If the ratio U ''/ is disregarded in expres sion (7), the system is reduced to two equations with singularity at i = 1 [24]. 2 As distinct from the approaches from [24], we assume that the magnetic field is constant. We trans form Eqs. (6) and (7) and obtain the following expres sion from Eq. (7): e = i + U '' = i + F ' , where F = E is the field strength divided by . We introduce the notation = i, = i, and i = and represent the system as

8e 2n*

i' = e ' =

q i , at

Note the overestimated ionization cross section ( 1016 cm2 at Te 2.7 eV) and underestimated scattering cross section ( tr 1016 cm2) in [4, 5]. The reduced ionization rate is * = n* = VT e n* = 1.12 105 s1. We also introduce the reduced scattering rate ** = trVT en = 2.13 107 s1. The * c dimensionless length is s = z * = z , (l 0 = s = cs l 0 * e 2.6 cm), the dimensionless potential is U = , the Te

F q i at , e i 2 at 1i 'e = F e + K , qi + i i + e i + F ' at i F ' = e , U' = F .

(8)

1 . Here, the coefficient is K =2 m eH M mc ***

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ACCELERATION OF HEAVY IONS IN A THRUSTER i 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0 0.2 0.01
Fig. 1. Plots of ion current vs. coordinate for = (1) and (3) 4.26 107 and (2) 1.09 107 (curve 3 is plotted with allowance for the Coulomb collisions).

421 1 3

2 1 3

120 100 80 60 40 20

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0 s

0 0.2 20
Fig. 2. Plots of ion velocity vs. coordinate for = (1) and (3) 4.26 107 and (2) 1.09 107 (curve 3 is plotted with allowance for the Coulomb collisions).

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0 0.02 0.01

Fig. 3. Plots of ion density vs. coordinate for = (1) and (3) 4.26 107 and (2) 1.09 107 (curve 3 is plotted with allowance for the Coulomb collisions) (note the similarity of curves).

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.10

0.12 s

3. SOLUTION OF THE EQUATIONS We solve system (8) under the following initial con ditions: i(0) = 105, (0) = at, F(0) = F '(0) = U(0) = 0. We take into account the Coulomb collisions using the terms i,e i . We use the Coulomb cross section [7] 4 e C = 4 2 ln , where ln 20. The numerical cal culations show that the condition for neutrality is not satisfied only in a narrow region in the vicinity of the beam entrance to the system and the deviation from the condition is relatively small. Therefore, we employ summation of the coefficients = i + e to take into account the scattering by electrons in system (8). Using the above formula at Te = 6 eV, we obtain C 1.4 1013 cm2. The ratio is C/tr 20. With allow ance for the scattering by electrons, we employ the total coefficient = i + e 50. At H 132.5 Oe, we

have 35. In this case, the condition eH coll is mc certainly satisfied. Figure 1 demonstrates the dependence of ion cur rent i on dimensionless coordinate s. Curves 1 and 2 are plotted for the discharge currents Id 1 and 4 A, and curve 3 is plotted for the current Id 1 A with allowance for the Coulomb scattering of electrons. The saturation ion current is rapidly reached at the discharge current Id 1 . At the large discharge cur rent (about 4 A) and when the ion current is relatively high, the ion current slowly (linearly) increases. Figure 2 shows the dependence (s). Note the absence of the ion sound singularity in all of the cases. Figure 3 demonstrates the coordinate dependence of the ion density. Curves 13 correspond to the currents Id in Fig. 1. Each curve exhibits maximum at s 0.04. Figure 4 shows the coordinate dependence of the charge density. It is seen that the condition for the quasi neutrality is substantially violated only in a nar
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422 ie 0.014 0.012 0.010 0.008 0.006 0.004 0.002 0 0.002 0.05 0.10 0.15 3 1 2

CHIKHACHEV U 15000 10000 3 5000 0 0.2 0.20 s

Fig. 5. Plots of the potential with the opposite sign vs. coordinate for = (1) and (3) 4.26 107 and (2) 1.09 107 (curve 3 is plotted with allowance for the Coulomb colli sions).

1 2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0 s

Fig. 4. Plots of charge density (i e) vs. coordinate for = (1) and (3) 4.26 107 and (2) 1.09 107 (curve 3 is plotted with allowance for the Coulomb collisions).

i 0.03 0.02 0.01

2 1 3

0.10 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02

0 50 0.01
Fig. 6. Plots of ion current vs. applied voltage for = (1) and (3) 4.26 107 and (2) 1.09 107 (curve 3 is plotted with allowance for the Coulomb collisions).

100

150

200

250

300 U

0 0.002 0.02 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.010 s

Fig. 7. Plot of ion velocity vs. coordinate for small s and = 4.26 107.

row region. Figure 5 demonstrates the coordinate dependence of the potential with the opposite sign, and Fig. 6 presents the dependence of the ion current on the applied voltage. Curves 13 correspond to the currents Id in Fig. 1. Figure 5 shows that the maximum current is reached at relatively low applied potentials. Note a feature of the solution to system of equa tions (6) and (7). An increase in magnetic field H leads to slightly greater currents but magnetic field H cannot be greater than a certain critical level. At < 35, the system exhibits reasonable solutions when parameter s is significantly greater than unity. When > 35.2 and s < 0.001, we observe a singularity due to the nonmonotonic behavior of the flow velocity at relatively small s. Figure 7 demonstrates the curve (s) that is plotted disregarding the Coulomb colli sions for s < 0.01, = 35.175, and = 4.26 107. At

= 35.176, the minimum velocity is zero and we obtain the singularity. Ions are locked due to the ion charge whereas the electron charge (in contrast to the ion charge) slowly monotonically increases in the above range of s. Thus, the calculated results for the Hall thruster are presented. One of the main results is the absence of the ion sound singularity, which stems from the exact condi tion for neutrality ni = ne [24]. Note that the real deviation from such a condition is relatively small. We also demonstrated the existence of the critical mag netic field above which the ion beam is locked. The absence of the ion sound singularity is similar to the absence of the crisis of the fast ion flow when the ion velocity decreases to the ion sound velocity [8]. Londer and Ulyanov [8] studied the 2D kinetic
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ACCELERATION OF HEAVY IONS IN A THRUSTER

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model that takes into account the spread of velocities, which leads to the absence of singularities. In this work and in [8], the singularity vanishes in the calculations that more fully take into account the real conditions. REFERENCES
1. A. N. Ermilov, Yu. A. Kovalenko, V. S. Kuleshov et al., Teplofiz. Vys. Temp. 46, 588 (2008). 2. J. Ashkenasy, A. Fruchtman, Y. Raitses, and N. J. Fish, Plasma Phys. Conrolled Fusion. 41, A357 (1999).

3. E. Ahedo, J. M. Gallardo, and M. Martines Sanches, Phys. Plasmas 9, 4061 (2002). 4. T. M. Sapronova and A. S. Chikhachev, J. Commun. Technol. Electron. 55, 347 (2010). 5. T. V. Chernyshev, A. S. Chikhachev, and A. N. Shramov, Prikl. Fiz., No. 4, 64 (2010). 6. A. N. Tkachev and S. I. Yakovlenko, Tech. Phys. 48, 190 (2003). 7. B. M. Smirnov, Physics of Weakly Ionized Gas (Fiz matlit, Moscow, 1978) [in Russian]. 8. Ya. I. Londer and K. N. Ulyanov, Tech. Phys. Lett. 36, 232 (2010).

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2012