Preionization of buffer chamber in ATON Hall thruster
ATON型Hall推力器缓冲区预电离问题研究

ATON is a new type of Hall thruster proposed in the 1990s, while the buffer chamber is a new structure used in it. In this paper, the main functions of buffer chamber are analyzed, and the method by adopting additional electric source is proposed to increase the preionization rate. Then the particle in cell method is used to simulate the plasma behavior in it. The numerical results show that additional electric power source can increase preionization rate effectively.