1.0kW Laboratory Hall Thruster

This is the first PPPL Hall thruster designed and built in 1999. It has an original flexible deisgn with two electromagnets (inner and outer) and shaped magnetic screen to allow an extended operating range (>1kW). Our initial results on the effects of segmented electrodes were obtained for this thruster.



Thruster channel


  • Material: Boron nitride
  • Outer diameter: 9cm
  • Inner diameter: 5.4cm

  • Input power range: 0.4 - 1.0kW
  • Discharge voltage: 200-400V
  • Thrust: 20-50mN
  • Isp: 1200-2000sec
  • Efficiency: 30-55% (no cathode flow)


Diagnostic Setup


  • This diagnostic setup was used in our previous studies of the effects of segmented electrodes and plasma instabilities in a 9 cm Hall thruster. All diagnostic tools were installed inside a 28 m3 vacuum vessel equipped with a diffusion pump (12,000 l/s for Xenon gas).