Bistable phenomenon of discharge in a Hall plasma accelerator

An interesting phenomenon observed in a Hall plasma accelerator operated in self-excited mode is that the discharge current jumps to-and-fro between two different values. This phenomenon is named bistable characteristic of discharge current. Experimental results show that the discharge current bistable characteristic happens in a narrow range of anode mass flow rate, while the current is stable at one value and almost linear to mass flow rate in other wide range. It is indicated that there is invalidation control region by adjusting anode mass flow rate to stabilize the discharge current in flight-type Hall plasma accelerators. In addition, the physical mechanism of this phenomenon is researched and a steady method is presented through analyzing the characteristics of all intersection points of magneto-ampere characteristic curve and magnetic field coil current curve in a Hall plasma accelerator.