In this paper, a two-dimensional physical model is established in a Hall thruster sheath region to investigate the influences of the electron temperature and the propellant on the sheath potential drop and the secondary electron emission in the Hall thruster, by the particle-in-cell （PIC） method. The numerical results show that when the electron temperature is relatively low, the change of sheath potential drop is relatively large, the surface potential maintains a stable value and the stability of the sheath is good. When the electron temperature is relatively high, the surface potential maintains a persistent oscillation, and the stability of the sheath reduces. As the electron temperature increases, the secondary electron emission coefficient on the wall increases. For three kinds of propellants （At, Kr, and Xe）, as the ion mass increases the sheath potentials and the secondary electron emission coefficients reduce in sequence.
In this paper,a two-dimensional physical model is established according to the discharging process in the Hall thruster discharge channel using the particle-in-cell method.The influences of discharge voltage on the distributions of potential,ion radial flow,and discharge current are investigated in a fixed magnetic field configuration.It is found that,with the increase of discharge voltage,especially during 250-650 V,the ion radial flow and the collision frequency between ions and the wall are decreased,but the discharge current is increased.The electron temperature saturation is observed between 400-450 V and the maximal value decreases during this region.When the discharge voltage reaches 700 V,the potential distribution in the axis direction expands to the anode significantly,the ionization region becomes close to the anode,and the acceleration region grows longer.Besides,ion radial flow and the collision frequency between ions and the wall are also increased when the discharge voltage exceeds 650 V.
The influences of the low-emissive graphite segmented electrode t）laeed near the channel exit on the discharge characteristics of a Hall thruster are studied using the particle- in-cell method. A two-dimensional physical model is established according to the Hall thruster discharge channel configuration. The effects of electrode length on the potential, ion density, electron temperature, ionization rate and discharge current are investigated. It is found that, with tile increasing of the segmented electrode length, the equipotential lines bend towards the channel exit. and approximately parallel to the wall at the channel surface, the radial velocity and radial flow of ions are increased, and the electron temperature is also enhanced. Due to the conductive characteristic of electrodes, the radial electric field and the axial electron conductivity near the wall are enhanced, and the probability of the electron-atom ionization is reduced, which leads to the degradation of the ionization rate in the discharge channel. However, the interaction between electrons and the wall enhances the near wall conductivity, therefore the discharge current grows along with the segmented electrode length, and the performance of the thruster is also affected.
Electron-wall interaction is always recognized as an important physical problem because of its remarkable influences on thruster discharge and performance. Based on existing theories, an electrode is predicted to weaken electron-wall interaction due to its low secondary electron emission characteristic. In this paper, the electron-wall interaction in an Aton-type Hall thruster with low-emissive electrodes placed near the exit of discharge channel is studied by a fully kinetic particle-in cell method. The results show that the electron-wall interaction in the region of segmented electrode is indeed weakened, but it is significantly enhanced in the remaining region of discharge channel. It is mainly caused by electrode conductive property which makes equipotential lines convex toward channel exit and even parallel to wall surface in near-wall re- gion; this convex equipotential configuration results in significant physical effects such as repelling electrons, which causes the electrons to move toward the channel center, and the electrons emitted from electrodes to be remarkably accelerated, thereby increasing electron temperature in the discharge channel, etc. Furthermore, the results also indicate that the discharge current in the segmented electrode case is larger than in the non-segmented electrode case, which is qualitatively in accordance with previous experimental results.
As a spatially extended dissipated system, atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharges （DBDs） could in principle possess complex nonlinear behaviors. In order to improve the stability and uniformity of atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharges, studies on tem- poral behaviors and radial structure of discharges with strong nonlinear behaviors under different controlling parameters are much desirable. In this paper, a two-dimensional fluid model is devel- oped to simulate the radial discharge structure of period-doubling bifurcation, chaos, and inverse period-doubling bifurcation in an atmospheric-pressure DBD. The results show that the period-2n （n = 1, 2... ） and chaotic discharges exhibit nonuniform discharge structure. In period-2n or chaos, not only the shape of current pulses doesn＇t remains exactly the same from one cycle to an- other, but also the radial structures, such as discharge spatial evolution process and the strongest breakdown region, are different in each neighboring discharge event. Current-voltage characteris- tics of the discharge system are studied for further understanding of the radial structure.
In order to investigate the effects of secondary electrons, which are emitted from the wall, on the performance of a thruster, a one-dimensional fluid model of the plasma sheath in double walls is applied to study the characteristics of a magnetized sheath. The effects of secondary electron emission （SEE） coefficients and trapping coefficients, as well as magnetic field, on the structure of the plasma sheath are investigated. The results show that sheath potential and wall potential rise with the increment of SEE coefficient and trapping coefficient which results in a reduced sheath thickness. In addition, magnetic field strength will influence the sheath potential distributions.
