Related papers: Analysis of a cusped helicon plasma thruster disch…
This research work is part of a PhD project aiming to design a new helicon plasma thruster for cargo space missions, within a collaboration between the School of Aerospace Engineering of La Sapienza University and the ENEA Frascati research…
Electric propulsion is now a sucessfull method for primary propulsion of deep space long duration missions and for geosyncronous satellite attitude control. Closed Drift Plasma Thruster, so called Hall Thruster or SPT (stationary plasma…
A fully kinetic 2D axisymmetric Particle-in-Cell (PIC) model is used to examine the effects of background facility pressure on the plasma transport and propulsive efficiency of magnetic nozzles. Simulations are performed for a low-power…
The micro-newton cusped field Hall thruster is an electric propulsion device that employs microwave-assisted ionization control. It serves as an actuator in drag-free control systems, ensuring control accuracy and stability by providing…
We report on the experimental characterization of the RIT-2.5 radiofrequency ion thruster, complemented by particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to establish correlations between plasma parameters and extracted beam properties. The thruster…
High-power magnetically shielded Hall thrusters have recently emerged to meet the needs of the next-generation space missions. Even though a few such thrusters are currently undergoing their late-stage development campaigns, many unanswered…
One of the fundamental problems is the understanding of physics of electrostatic and electromagnetic fluctuations in multi-scale plasma turbulence. Especially so, in continuously connected plasma regions with varying degree of…
The electron dynamics and the mechanisms of power absorption in radio-frequency (RF) driven, magnetically enhanced capacitively coupled plasmas (MECCPs) at low pressure are investigated. The device in focus is a geometrically asymmetric…
Magnetic nozzles are a key component of electrodeless plasma thrusters, acting as their main acceleration stage. Non-stationary phenomena common to the entire range of $E \times B$ devices, such as oscillations and instabilities, are likely…
The Particle-in-Cell (PIC) method was used to study two different ion thruster concepts - Stationary Plasma Thrusters (SPT) and High Efficiency Multistage Plasma Thrusters (HEMP-T), in particular the plasma properties in the discharge…
Dusty plasma medium turns out to be an ideal system for studying the strongly coupled behavior of matter. The large size and slow response make their dynamics suitable to be captured through simple diagnostic tools. Furthermore, as the…
It is shown that the transport in low temperature, collisional, bounded plasma is enhanced by instabilities at high magnetic field. While the magnetic field confines the electrons in a stable plasma, the instability completely destroys the…
Plasma turbulence is the dominant transport mechanism for heat and particles in magnetized plasmas in linear devices and tokamaks, so the study of turbulence is important in limiting and controlling this transport. Linear devices provide an…
In a grid-less Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) plasma thruster with a diverging magnetic nozzle, the magnitude of the ambipolar field accelerating the positive ions depends of the perpendicular energy gained by the electrons. This work…
Today, partially magnetized low-temperature plasmas (LTP) in an ExB configuration, where the applied magnetic field is perpendicular to the self-consistent electric field, have important industrial applications. Hall thrusters, a type of…
This study explores the transitional characteristics of blue-core helicon discharge, which to our knowledge was not particularly focused on before. Parameters are measured on recently built advanced linear plasma device, i.e. Multiple…
Kinetic instabilities in weakly collisional, high beta plasmas are investigated using two-dimensional hybrid expanding box simulations with Coulomb collisions modeled through the Langevin equation (corresponding to the Fokker-Planck one).…
Heat conduction in weakly collisional, magnetised plasma is challenging to model accurately due to multifaceted physics governing heat-carrying electrons, including microinstabilities that scatter electrons and modify heat transport.…
The spatial and temporal evolutions of blue-core helicon discharge driven by a planar antenna with four concentric rings are explored on the Linear Experimental Advanced Device (LEAD). The discharge experiences distinct density jumps from E…
The problem of determining the effective conductivity tensor of a magnetoactive turbulent plasma is considered in the approximation of isolated particles. Additional gyrotropicterms are shown to appear in the conductivity tensor in the…