Experimental study of the domain of existence of intensive non-self-sustained discharge in crossed fields

A set of experiments was performed on the breadboard model of the Hall thruster with the anode layer. Use of the thermoemission cathodes as the cathode-compensators made it possible to determine the domain of existence of the non-self-sustained type of discharge in the crossed electric and magnetic fields at different values of the anode voltage, the magnetic field, and the working body mass flow rate. According to the electron current transfer mechanism and the current oscillation character, two modes of the discharge are distinguished burning strictly differing, even visually: the “accelerative” and the “stochastic” ones.