A Hall thruster is a cross-field plasma device used for spacecraft propulsion. An important unresolved issue in the development of Hall thrusters concerns the effect of discharge oscillations in the range of 10–30 kHz on their performance. The use of a high speed Langmuir probe system and ultra-fast imaging of the discharge plasma of a Hall thruster suggests that the discharge oscillation mode, often called the breathing mode, is strongly correlated to an axial global ionization mode. Stabilization of the global oscillation mode is achieved as the magnetic field is increased and azimuthally rotating spokes are observed. A hybrid-direct kinetic simulation that takes into account the transport of electronically excited atoms is used to model the discharge plasma of a Hall thruster. The predicted mode transition agrees with experiments in terms of the mean discharge current, the amplitude of discharge current oscillation, and the breathing mode frequency. It is observed that the stabilization of the global oscillation mode is associated with reduced electron transport that suppresses the ionization process inside the channel. As the Joule heating balances the other loss terms including the effects of wall loss and inelastic collisions, the ionization oscillation is damped, and the discharge oscillation stabilizes. A wide range of the stable operation is supported by the formation of a space charge saturated sheath that stabilizes the electron axial drift and balances the Joule heating as the magnetic field increases. Finally, it is indicated from the numerical results that there is a strong correlation between the emitted light intensity and the discharge current.

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A perturbation analysis of ionization oscillations, which cause low frequency oscillations of the discharge plasma, in Hall effect thrusters is presented including the electron energy equation in addition to heavy-species transport. Excitation and stabilization of such oscillations, often called the breathing mode, are discussed in terms of the growth rate obtained from the linear perturbation equations of the discharge plasma. The instability induced from the ionization occurs only when the perturbation in the electron energy is included while the neutral atom flow contributes to the damping of the oscillation. Effects of the electron energy loss mechanisms such as wall heat loss, inelastic collisions, and convective heat flux are discussed. It is shown that the ionization oscillations can be damped when the electron transport is reduced and the electron temperature increases so that the energy loss to the wall stabilizes the ionization instability.

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