Growth of the lower hybrid drift instability in the plume of a magnetically shielded Hall thruster

Abstract

Analytical and numerical investigations have been carried out that show the lower hybrid drift instability is active in a region of low-β plasma outside the discharge channel of a magnetically shielded Hall thruster. The region is located downstream of the inner front pole magnet and is contained by the thruster ion beam and hollow cathode plume. It is found that large enough E × B and diamagnetic drifts in the out-of-plane (azimuthal) direction are produced in this region to destabilize lower hybrid waves, even in the presence of electron collisions. The results have been obtained by solving an electrostatic dispersion relation in which the density inhomogeneity is accounted for in the velocity distribution function of the strongly magnetized electrons. Ions in the azimuthal direction have been treated as stationary and unmagnetized. The plasma properties in the dispersion have been provided independently by large-scale 2D multi-fluid/particle-in-cell simulations. The growth rates are found to be even greater than those associated with the modified two-stream instability, which was also predicted recently to be active in this region. The implication of the findings is that ions may be heated anomalously by these instabilities, in both the out-of-plane and in-plane directions perpendicular to the applied magnetic field, thereby altering the velocity field and enhancing the energy of those ions that strike nearby thruster surfaces.