Operation of an Annular Helicon Plasma Source

Palmer, Douglas D.; Walker, Mitchell L. R.

doi:10.2514/1.41403

Cited by 17 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Hall thrusters are typically built in an annular geometry to maximize the fraction of the propellant that travels through the area where Hall acceleration may occur. Although most previous helicon experiments have studied helicons in a cylindrical geometry, previous work has also demonstrated the operation of an annular helicon source [19]. Thus, it has been suggested that an annular helicon plasma source connected to a Hall acceleration stage could make the most efficient use of the electrical power available to a thruster operating at high T/P [20,21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance of a Helicon Hall Thruster Operating with Xenon, Argon, and Nitrogen

Shabshelowitz

Gallimore²,

Peterson

2014

Journal of Propulsion and Power

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The helicon Hall thruster is a two-stage thruster that was developed to investigate whether a radio frequency ionization stage can improve the overall efficiency of a Hall thruster operating at high thrust and low specific impulse. This paper describes an experiment that measured the single-stage and two-stage performance of the helicon Hall thruster operating at 10-25 mg∕s anode mass flow rates of xenon at 100-200 V discharge voltages, and also for 6 mg∕s of argon at 300 V, and 2.6 mg∕s of nitrogen at 200 V. The helicon Hall thruster performance during operation with argon and nitrogen is characterized by low beam divergence efficiency and low propellant utilization efficiency. During two-stage operation, the thrust of the helicon Hall thruster marginally increased with radio frequency power, but the propulsive efficiency and thrust-to-power both decreased with increasing radio frequency power. Probe diagnostics suggest that gains were realized by a slight increase in propellant efficiency, but that the rate of increase was not sufficient to overcome the increase in power.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance of a Helicon Hall Thruster Operating with Xenon, Argon, and Nitrogen

Shabshelowitz

Gallimore²,

Peterson

2014

Journal of Propulsion and Power

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“…In order to describe the plasma response to an external device, such as a radio frequency antenna, the potential from that device must be calculated and included explicitly in the mathematics. For the common configuration of a plasma confined by a cylindri-cal vessel, [27][28][29] one also must be explicit with the transition from conductive to dielectric material at the boundary such that n e → 0. Nonetheless, the model derived here is based upon the same simplifying approximations as commonly used in the theoretical description of such devices 7,8,10,11 and sheds some light on the electromagnetic behavior of ionized material.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential formulation of the dispersion relation for a uniform, magnetized plasma with stationary ions in terms of a vector phasor

Johnson¹

2012

Physics of Plasmas

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The derivation of the helicon dispersion relation for a uniform plasma with stationary ions subject to a constant background magnetic field is reexamined in terms of the potential formulation of electrodynamics. Under the same conditions considered by the standard derivation, the nonlinear self-coupling between the perturbed electron flow and the potential it generates is addressed. The plane wave solution for general propagation vector is determined for all frequencies and expressed in terms of a vector phasor. The behavior of the solution as described in vacuum units depends upon the ratio of conductivity to the magnitude of the background field. Only at low conductivity and below the cyclotron frequency can significant propagation occur as determined by the ratio of skin depth to wavelength.

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“…[15][16][17] Previous work has also demonstrated the operation of an annular helicon source, which may be applied as an ionization stage for a two-stage Hall thruster. 18 The Helicon Hall thruster (HHT) is a two-stage thruster designed to utilize the efficient ionization of a helicon plasma source with the acceleration mechanism of a Hall thruster. In particular, HHT was constructed to investigate whether the inclusion of a radiofrequency (rf) ionization stage could increase the overall efficiency of a Hall thruster operating in a high thrust-to-power, low specific impulse operating regime.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance of a Helicon Hall Thruster Operating with Xenon, Argon, and Nitrogen

Shabshelowitz

Gallimore²,

Peterson

2012

48th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference &Amp;amp; Exhibit

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The Helicon Hall Thruster (HHT) is a two-stage thruster that was developed to investigate whether a radiofrequency ionization stage can improve the overall efficiency of a Hall thruster operating at high thrust and low specific impulse. This experiment measured the single-stage and two-stage performance of the HHT for 10-25 mg/s anode mass flow rates of xenon at 100-200 V discharge voltages, and also for 6 mg/s of argon at 300 V, and 2.6 mg/s of nitrogen at 200 V. Argon and nitrogen performance are characterized by low beam divergence efficiency and low propellant utilization efficiency. During two-stage operation, the thrust of the HHT increased slightly with rf power, but the propulsive efficiency and thrust-to-power both decreased with increasing rf power. Probe diagnostics suggest that gains were realized by a slight increase in propellant efficiency, but that the rate of increase was not sufficient to overcome the increase in power. NomenclatureA c,eff = Faraday probe effective collection area [m 2 ] e = elementary charge [C] E 1 = voltage exchange parameter [-] E 2 = mass exchange parameter [-] = Faraday constant [C/mol] I axial = axial component of ion beam current [A] I beam = ion beam current [A] I c = current collected by probe [A] I d = discharge current [A] I sp,a = anode specific impulse [s] I sp,a + = theoretical anode specific impulse of a singly-charged plasma [s] = molar mass [kg/mol] m i = ion mass [kg] = total thruster mass flow rate [kg/s] = anode mass flow rate [kg/s] = cathode mass flow rate [kg/s] P d = discharge power [W] P elec = total electrical power [W] P dc = dc discharge power [W] P mag = magnet power [W] P rf = rf power [W] P thrust = jet power of thruster exhaust [W] 2 r = Faraday probe distance from thruster [m] T = measured thrust [N] T + = theoretical thrust of a thruster with singly-charged plasma [N] = average axial velocity of exhaust particle [m/s] V d = discharge voltage [V] V mp = most probable energy of exhaust ions [V] V p = plasma potential [V] = anode efficiency [-] = anode efficiency of a thruster with singly-charged plasma [-] = cathode efficiency [-] = discharge efficiency [-] = magnet power efficiency [-] = current utilization efficiency [-] = rf power efficiency [-] = total efficiency [-] = voltage utilization efficiency [-] θ = angular position of Faraday probe [radians] λ = effective exhaust divergence angle [degrees] = propellant utilization efficiency [-] = beam divergence efficiency [-]

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Operation of an Annular Helicon Plasma Source

Cited by 17 publications

References 28 publications

Performance of a Helicon Hall Thruster Operating with Xenon, Argon, and Nitrogen

Performance of a Helicon Hall Thruster Operating with Xenon, Argon, and Nitrogen

Potential formulation of the dispersion relation for a uniform, magnetized plasma with stationary ions in terms of a vector phasor

Performance of a Helicon Hall Thruster Operating with Xenon, Argon, and Nitrogen

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