Effects of Coupling Oscillations on the Electron Conductivity of Hall Thrusters

It is known that the static magnetic field of a Hall thruster remains unchanged with the product of coil current and coil turn kept constant. This is called the ampere‐turns equivalence principle, which is used in the static magnetic field design of Hall thrusters. It is found that the discharge characteristic is different with the same static magnetic field which is formed by the same ampere‐turns but different coil turns. The effects of the fluctuating magnetic field on the static magnetic field are studied experimentally and theoretically, and the effective collision frequency is calculated based on the dispersion relation of coupling oscillations and the estimation of the fluctuating magnetic field. Results indicate that the different coil turns are accompanied by different coupling intensities which lead to different magnetic field fluctuations. The different magnetic field fluctuations cause differences in the effective electron collision frequency and therefore the electron conductivity and the discharge characteristic of Hall thrusters (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)