Low-Frequency Instability in Near-Anode Region of Hall Thruster

This paper is devoted to building a theoretical model of relatively low-frequency (nu
_i
Lt omega Lt radic(omega
_e
omega
_i
), where nu
_i
is the frequency of the ionization collisions of the electron and omega
_e
and omega
_i
are the electron and ion cyclotron frequencies, respectively) instability of plasma in the near-anode area of the Hall thruster acceleration channel. The behavior of 2-D perturbations, which are infinitely spread along the magnetic field lines, is considered. In the model, the two-fluid magnetohydrodynamic approximation is used. The finite temperature of electrons is taken into consideration. The instability is due to the finite temperature of the electrons and nonuniformity of both the plasma and magnetic field. By its nature, it belongs to the Rayleigh-Taylor type. The instability can be responsible for the enhanced transfer of the electrons between the ionization region and the anode.