Experimental approach to improve ion thruster performance: Part 2 - Effects of magnetic field

The effects of the magnetic field shape adjacent to the ion optics on ion thruster performance were investigated. The magnetic field configuration near the ion optics was varied by changing the direction of the downstream side-wall magnets in the radial and axial directions. As a result, when the downstream side-wall magnets were placed in the axial direction, the effective ion beam extraction area was 10.2% larger than when the magnets were in the radial direction. This caused a 8.5% increase in beam current and 8.0% reduction in ion production cost at a typical operating point.