Principal Investigator Manuel Martinez-Sanchez
Project Website http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/labs/spl/research_DCFT.htm
The Divergent Cusped Field Thruster (DCF, or DCFT) is a concept belonging to the general family of Hall devices, but being clearly distinguished by the use of a cylindrical set of magnetic cusps for electron confinement, in replacement of the simple radial field of common Hall thusters. This has, among others, the effect of avoiding the use of a central pole piece, which reduces exposed surface area and facilitates miniaturization as well as diagnostic access. In addition, the confining effect on the plasma (magnetic in the case of the electrons, electrostatic in that of the ions) is very strong here, and only very small portions of the insulating casing are at all accessible to the plasma, with possibly beneficial effect on life. The divergent geometry was adopted in an attempt to further reduce ion impingement near the exit plane and to better understand the effect of magnetic topography towards mitigating erosion.