Research Projects

Anomalous electron transport is one of the prominent mechanism in Hall thruster. Various explanations like cross-field diffusion, Bohm diffusion, near wall conductivity and azimuthal electric fields are attempted to understand the electron transport. The real cause likely to be combination of all. The complex behaviour of electrons in cross-field hall thruster can be handled by categorizing in the following way: Electron mobility in the discharge channel (in the near-anode, ionization and acceleration zones), azimuthal hall current (electron propagation around the channel) and electron mobility in the plume. Since these regions are characterized by different magnetic field strength and orientation, each region has to be handled differently. The first part of the study reveals the efficiency of ionization and thrust generation mechanism, second part gives the information of electron confinement in the channel and last part gibes the electron transport from external cathode to the discharge channel across and along the magnetic field.