Effects of erosion surface on near wall conductivity (NWC) in the Hall-type stationary plasma thrusters

The effect of erosion structure of the wall surface on near wall conductivity was studied in this paper. The electron dynamics process in the plasma was described by the test particle method where electrons were randomly injected into the wall. Monte Carlo method was used to calculate the model. The simulation results showed that the axial current density increased in the case of erosion. Furthermore, the current layers were observed and the layer thickness was approximately equal to the radical electron motion in a half of the electron Larmor period. Also, the current density increases as the erosion structure gradually growed. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.