Resistive instabilities in Hall current plasma discharge

Plasma perturbations in the acceleration channel of a Hall thruster are found to be unstable in the presence of collisions. Both electrostatic lower-hybrid waves and electromagnetic Alfven waves transverse to the applied electric and magnetic field are found to be unstable due to collisions in the ExB electron flow. These results are obtained assuming a two-fluid hydrodynamic model in slab geometry. The characterisitic frequencies of these modes are consistent with experimental observations in Hall current plasma thrusters. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.