The plasma plume properties of a three-channel 100-kW-class nested Hall thruster were measured on xenon propellant for total powers up to 80 kW. The thruster was throttled through all seven available channel combinations for conditions spanning 300 to 500 V discharge voltage and three discharge current densities. A plasma diagnostics array, which included a Wien filter spectrometer, a retarding potential analyzer, and a planar Langmuir probe, was placed in the far-field plume of the thruster and used to measure the beam ion charge state, the ion energy distribution function, and the local plasma potential. These data were used to calculate thruster phenomenological efficiencies. These efficiencies are compared across the discharge voltage and channel combination, and they are compared to similar results from the NASA-300M single-channel high-power Hall thruster. An estimate of cross-channel ingestion, which is a phenomenon in the nested configuration that may improve thruster efficiency and that will be present in space, is calculated, and the results for mass utilization efficiency are corrected for this effect. These plasma diagnostic results are discussed in the context of the state of the art, as well as in that of the viability and potential benefits of the nested channel thruster configuration.

三通道 100 千瓦级嵌套霍尔推进器的等离子体羽流特性是在氙气推进剂上测量的，总功率高达 80 千瓦。在 300 到 500 V 放电电压和三个放电电流密度的条件下，推进器通过所有七个可用通道组合进行节流。等离子体诊断阵列，包括维恩滤波器光谱仪、阻滞电位分析仪和平面朗缪尔探针，被放置在推进器的远场羽流中，用于测量束离子电荷状态、离子能量分布函数、和局部等离子体电位。这些数据用于计算推进器现象学效率。这些效率在放电电压和通道组合中进行比较，并将它们与 NASA-300M 单通道大功率霍尔推进器的类似结果进行比较。计算了跨通道摄取的估计值，这是嵌套配置中的一种现象，可以提高推进器效率并将出现在空间中，并针对这种影响校正了质量利用效率的结果。这些等离子体诊断结果在现有技术的背景下以及嵌套通道推进器配置的可行性和潜在好处的背景下进行了讨论。