Experimental Characterization of the Time-Averaged and Oscillatory Behavior of a Hall Plasma Discharge

An extensive experimental campaign characterizes a 70 mm diameter stationary plasma thruster operating on xenon in the 200-500 W power range. This study resolves both time-averaged properties and oscillatory phenomena in the plasma discharge. Specifically, we explore the time variation of the plume ion velocity field referenced to periodic discharge current oscillations using time-synchronized laser induced fluorescence (LIF) measurements. This LIF scheme relies on a triggered signal acquisition gate locked at a given phase of the current oscillation period. The laser is modulated at a characteristic frequency and homodyne detection through a lock-in amplifier extracts the induced fluorescence signal out of the bright background emission.