Research Projects

Hall thruster is a rich source of plasma oscillations with diverse phenomena involved in it. Breathing mode and rotating spokes mode are of primary interest exist in Hall thruster. Breathing modes are the strong oscillations whose frequency falls in the range 1-20 kHz and quite sensitive to the entire circuitry including power processing unit. Rotating spokes are azimuthal oscillations (5-20 kHz) anchored in the anode region and may extend to throughout discharge. Both phenomena are believed to be related to ionization processes and it is uncertain how they interact or feed off each other, however, it is strongly suspected these modes greatly affect anomalous electron transport. The behaviour of these oscillations as a function of magnetic field is of great importance in understanding and predicting the thruster characteristics.