Original Article Simulation of Hollow Cathode in the Hall Thruster by Particle in Cell (PIC) Method Masumeh Kiantaj * 1 , Morteza Farhid 2 Mohammad Mehdi Shafie 3 , Mohammad Reza Morad 4 1,*. Space Thrusters Research Institute, Tabriz, Iran m.kiantaj@gmail.com, Corresponding author 2. Space Thrusters Research Institute, Tabriz, Iran, farhid@isrc.ac.ir 3. Space Thrusters Research Institute, Tabriz, Iran, Mehdishafie@Tabrizu.ac.ir 4. Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, morad@sharif.ir Abstract The this article the characteristics of the hollow cathode plasma particles in the spt-100 hall effect thruster have been investigated by two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. One of the main and important components of the hall thruster is hollow cathode which plays two important tasks: one part of the electrons that come from the cathode used for anode propellant ionization, and the other part plays an important role of neutralizing the ion beam coming out of the thruster. Therefore, the study of the hollow cathode characteristic is importance. Krypton is used as fuel in this system. Potential changes, density of electrons, ions and temperature of particles have been studied throughout the simulation area. The results show that corresponding to the electrons, the ion density also decreases from the maximum value in the cathode ionization region exponentially through outer chamber. Also, analyzing normalized radius regard to electron density shows that the cathode effective area in which the radius electron temperature reaches maximum value is located about 1.5mm from the center line of the hallow cathode. Available in: Journal.isrc.ac.ir Journal of Space Science, Technology & Applications (Persian) Vol. 2, No. 2, pp.: 37-47 2022 DOI: 10.22034/jssta.2022.365419.1093 Received: 2022-10-15 Accepted: 2022-12-05 Hall thruster, Hollow cathode, PIC simulation Masumeh Kiantaj, Morteza Farhid, Mohammad Mehdi Shafie, Mohammad Reza Morad, “Simulation of Hollow Cathode in the Hall Thruster by Particle in Cell (PIC) Method”, Journal of Space Science, Technology and Applications, vol 2 (2), p.: 37-47, 2023. Article Info Keywords How to Cite this article