Study of stationary plasma thrusters using two-dimensional fully kinetic simulations

Stationary plasma thrusters are devices that use crossed electric and magnetic fields to accelerate ions to high velocities. Ions are created by collisional ionization of a propellant gas with electrons injected from a hollow cathode external to the thruster. A major issue is the electron transport through the magnetic field. It is known to exceed considerably the values predicted by the classical theory. Various 2D models have shown that wall collisions, which have often been invoked as the origin of this anomalous transport, are in fact insufficient. Anomalous turbulent transport has to be added to the model to recover an adequate conductivity. In the present paper the first 2D kinetic model that shows that, indeed, plasma turbulence can explain the observed conductivity is presented. Without any free parameter the model is able to reproduce numerous experimental features. At the end of the paper a preliminary theoretical analysis of the observed instability is provided. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.