Institute of Fundamental Technological Research

Hall-effect thruster plasma oscillations recorded by means of probes located at the channel exit are analyzed using the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method. This self-adaptive technique permits to decompose a nonstationary signal into a set of intrinsic modes, and acts as a very efficient filter allowing to separate contributions of different underlying physical mechanisms. Applying the Hilbert transform to the whole set of modes allows to identify peculiar events and to assign them a range of instantaneous frequency and power. In addition to 25kHz breathing-type oscillations which are unambiguously identified, the EMD approach confirms the existence of oscillations with instantaneous frequencies in the range of 100–500kHz typical for ion transit-time oscillations. Modeling of high-frequency modes (ν∼10MHz) resulting from EMD of measured wave forms supports the idea that high-frequency plasma oscillations originate from electron-density perturbations propagating azimuthally with the electron drift velocity.

Plasma oscillations, Interplanetary magnetic fields, Plasma waves, Wavelets, High frequency discharges

Discharge current and local plasma oscillations are studied in a high voltage Hall effect thruster PPS®-X000. Characteristic time scales that appear in different operating conditions are resolved with the use of Hilbert-Huang spectra (HHS) which display time dependenc of instantaneous frequency and power. Sets of intrinsic mode functions (imfs) that are used for HHS calculation result due to application of empirical mode decomposition method (EMD) to nonstationary multicomponent signals. In the experiment the signals are captured in the electric circuit of the thruster as well locally, in the vicinity of the thruster exhaust region. Classical electric probes spaced along the azimuth and/or thruster axis let us study correlations of signals which were captured in different locations. In this way azimuthal and axial propagation of disturbances is inspected. The discharge voltage is varied in the range of 200÷900 V while xenon mas flow rate of 5÷9 mg/s. LF, MF, and HF characteristic bands that are known from previous studies of PPS®-100 thruster have been also detected here. However, expanding discharge current onto a set of intrinsic modes we can resolve MF mode more reliably than before. Moreover, for higher discharge voltages, this irregular mode turns into more regular waveform and tends to dominate in the discharge current masking almost completely the breathing mode (LF oscillations of the discharge current). In such a case triggering of HF oscillations is correlated with the phase of MF mode while in the case of PPS®-100 thruster it was correlated with the appropriate phase of the breathing mode (LF band). Regular HF emission that can be unambiguously interpreted as azimuthal electrostatic wave now is observed only in the specific operating conditions of the thruster. However, even if irregular HF emission is observed the time delay of cross-correlated signals which are captured in different azimuthal locations corresponds to the velocity of azimuthal electron drift in the field of magnetic barrier.

High voltage direct current transmission, Electrical circuits, Electrostatic discharges, Electrostatic waves, Plasma oscillations

Using the fluid equations of Hall thruster plasma we analyze the influence of the electron energy balance on the stability of ion sound modes. For frequencies lower than ωc = 107 s−1 the gains and losses in the source term are approximately equal, thus the temperature can be in principle determined in terms of other dependent variables. This permits to reduce the number of equations. It appears however, that the new system can have complex characteristics in some regions. This in turn implies instability of certain modes with frequencies lower than ωc.

Energy balance, Acoustic analysis, Fluid equations, Instability analysis, Plasma instabilities