Hall effect thrusters utilize electric and magnetic fields to extract ions from a plasma discharge. The cathode is responsible for the ionization of the propellant and the neutralization of the ion beam by emitting an equal number of electrons to prevent spacecraft charging. Hollow cathode electrons are extracted from LaB6 insert surface by thermionic emission. The electrons leaving the surface generate a negative cathode voltage around LaB6 emitter. As the emitter surface expels electrons, the same amount of electrons are attracted from the ground. Those electrons are measured as the ground current. For Hall effect thrusters, the electron movements are determined by the external magnetic lines of the thruster. If electrons could not pass the magnetic field lines, they could not reach the anode and the magnitude of cathode to ground voltage increases. As a result, plume plasma potential increases. This study shows that by measuring the electron current coming from the emitter surface, influence of the external magnetic field strength on the efficiency of the thruster could be predicted.
You can reach this paper with the following link:
5th International Conference on Space Propulsion, Rome, Italy, 2-6 May 2016, SP2016-3125333.
Some figures from the paper:
