ID-HALL, a new double stage Hall thruster design. II. Experimental characterization of the inductive ionization source

Double Stage Hall Thrusters (DSHTs) are designed to allow separate control of ionization and ion acceleration by adding a plasma source (ionization stage) upstream of the magnetic field barrier (acceleration stage) of a standard Hall thruster. In this paper, we propose a new DSHT concept, ID-HALL, where the ionization stage is an inductively coupled magnetized plasma generated around the inner cylinder of the Hall thruster and located as close as possible to the magnetic barrier. This thruster design should allow efficient ionization, minimize charged particle losses to the walls, and optimize ion extraction. We present the general design of the ID-HALL thruster, and we focus on the experimental characterization of the ionization stage.