I. Plasma Instability in Hall Thrusters - An Analytical Study

Hall Thrusters now plays a prominent role in space propulsion systems owing to its high thrust-to-power ratio, high specific impulse, high efficiency, and simple structure. Partial plasma confinement is fundamental to Hall Thrusters Physics, but that also leads to a variety of instabilities like Modified Two Stream Instability and Electron Cyclotron Drift Instability which takes a toll on efficiency and overall performance of the Thrusters. Although Numerical stimulations have replicated many of these, the cause of these instabilities are still in dark and it is of importance that we have a very solid theoretical understanding of Working Principles. Here, we derive a generic linear dispersion relation for Hall thrusters and attempt to analytically explain these observed instabilities.