Thrust performance improvement of electrostatic–magnetic hybrid acceleration with argon propellant using a stagnant ring

In electrostatic–magnetic hybrid thrusters, enhancing ionization near the anode can improve thrust performance. Building on this concept, we developed a stagnant ring (SR) for an electrostatic–magnetic hybrid thruster. In this study, we investigated the thruster performance characteristics with a combination of the SR and Ar propellant and compared them to traditional Xe operations. Higher thrust efficiencies and specific impulses were achieved with Ar compared to Xe, with specific impulses from 3000 to 4300 s and thrust efficiency maintained at approximately 20% during Ar operations. The high specific impulse, achieved with a discharge voltage of at most 300 V, resulted from a large proportion of multiply charged ions with the SR. Our analysis suggested that ion generation was concentrated in the high-potential region with the SR. The modest thrust efficiency for Xe with SR was attributed to larger cross-field electron transportation. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the SR and Ar propellant combination in enhancing the thrust performance of the electrostatic–magnetic hybrid thruster.