Plasma characterisation of an ATON-Hall thruster - Channel and plume investigation

The results of measurements made on an ATON-class Hall thruster in the French PIVOINE facility are presented. Diagnostics consist in optical emission spectroscopy, fast imaging, Langmuir probes arid ion energy analyser. The aim of this work was to compare the characteristics of the plasma in the channel and in the plume between two modes, called "swallow tail" and "spike" modes.