Open AccessGeneral Cause of Sheath Instability Identified for Low Collisionality Plasma in Devices with Secondary Electron Emission
Author(s) -
A. Khrabrov and I Kaganovich M.C. Campanell
Publication year - 2012
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/1062660
Subject(s) - electron , collisionality , plasma , atomic physics , secondary emission , instability , debye sheath , secondary electrons , field electron emission , physics , mechanics , tokamak , nuclear physics
A condition for sheath instability due to secondary electron emission (SEE) is derived for low collisionality plasmas. When the SEE coefficient of the electrons bordering the depleted loss cone in energy space exceeds unity, the sheath potential is unstable to a negative perturbation. This result explains three different instability phenomena observed in Hall thruster simulations including a newly found state with spontaneous ~20MHz oscillations. When instabilities occur, the SEE propagating between the walls becomes the dominant contribution to the particle flux, energy loss and axial transport