Patent ID: 7075095

Claim:
A plasma accelerator system comprising: (a) an anode; (b) an end electrode; (c) a plasma chanter between said anode and said end electrode, said end electrode being spaced apart from the anode in a longitudinal direction of the plasma chamber at an exit of a plasma beam from the plasma chamber; (d) at least one intermediate electrode arranged between the anode and the end electrode in the longitudinal direction, said at least one intermediate electrode lying electrically at intermediate potentials; and (e) a magnet arrangement generating a magnetic field in the plasma chamber, said magnetic field comprising a first set of first magnetic field segments and a second set of second magnetic field segments, said first magnetic field segments running predominantly perpendicular to the longitudinal direction in an area that comprises the end electrode and the intermediate electrode that lies closest to said end electrode in the longitudinal direction, said second magnetic field segments running parallel to the longitudinal direction, each first magnetic field segment having an adjacent second magnetic field segment on each side of the first magnetic field segment in the longitudinal direction; wherein a last potential difference between the end electrode and the intermediate electrode that lies closest to said end electrode amounts to at least four times a first potential difference between the anode and the intermediate electrode that lies closest to said anode.