A Method Comparison for Charge Exchange Corrections for Hall Thrusters

The various charge exchange correction methods for a Hall effect thruster's ion current density profile are investigated and compared. This study is conducted on the HERMeS thruster plume profiles at 300V 6.25kW and 600V 12.5kW. An additional method is proposed that leverages ion energy distribution data to determine the charge exchange contribution across the plume and introduces a factor for particle attenuation. The model is compared to the thruster profile achieved using the best practices approach. The resulting profile showed improved agreement at large angles of the plume for the 600V condition. This method offers a simple, physics-based profile estimation for improved plume characterization.