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Development of a high current heaterless hollow cathode

Development of a high current heaterless hollow cathode
Development of a high current heaterless hollow cathode
Higher power in-space propulsion systems are increasingly been developed and utilised due to payload increases and mission demands. This requires higher current cathodes to match this demand, as such cathodes are increasingly adopting lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) emitters due to the higher current density operation capabilities. However, LaB6 cathodes operate at higher temperatures compared with traditional barium oxide cathodes, due to the material’s relatively higher work function. Hence, this poses higher challenges to the heater technologies, which raise convention HCs to thermionic temperature. Here we present the development of a heaterless hollow cathode (HHC) system, which self-heats within only tens of seconds before nominal operation, and enables currents up to 30 A. Such that the system effectively removes the burden of the heater subcomponent. Within this work, the breakdown, cold (heating) discharge and nominal performance of the HHC have been characterised. In addition, optical emission spectroscopy is utilised to assess the relative erosion rates.
high current, heaterless, Hollow cathode discharge, thermionic emission, Lab6
1-8
Daykin-Iliopoulos, Alexander
0caedbac-93a0-45c9-ae31-02f6c70ab8c0
Golosnoy, Igor O.
40603f91-7488-49ea-830f-24dd930573d1
Gabriel, Stephen
ac76976d-74fd-40a0-808d-c9f68a38f259
Daykin-Iliopoulos, Alexander
0caedbac-93a0-45c9-ae31-02f6c70ab8c0
Golosnoy, Igor O.
40603f91-7488-49ea-830f-24dd930573d1
Gabriel, Stephen
ac76976d-74fd-40a0-808d-c9f68a38f259

Daykin-Iliopoulos, Alexander, Golosnoy, Igor O. and Gabriel, Stephen (2018) Development of a high current heaterless hollow cathode. Space Propulsion 2018, Barcelo Renacimiento Hotel, Convention Center, Avenida Alvaro Alonso Barba, Isla de la Cartuja, 41092 Seville, Spain, Seville, Spain. 14 - 18 May 2018. pp. 1-8 .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Higher power in-space propulsion systems are increasingly been developed and utilised due to payload increases and mission demands. This requires higher current cathodes to match this demand, as such cathodes are increasingly adopting lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) emitters due to the higher current density operation capabilities. However, LaB6 cathodes operate at higher temperatures compared with traditional barium oxide cathodes, due to the material’s relatively higher work function. Hence, this poses higher challenges to the heater technologies, which raise convention HCs to thermionic temperature. Here we present the development of a heaterless hollow cathode (HHC) system, which self-heats within only tens of seconds before nominal operation, and enables currents up to 30 A. Such that the system effectively removes the burden of the heater subcomponent. Within this work, the breakdown, cold (heating) discharge and nominal performance of the HHC have been characterised. In addition, optical emission spectroscopy is utilised to assess the relative erosion rates.

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Published date: 18 May 2018
Venue - Dates: Space Propulsion 2018, Barcelo Renacimiento Hotel, Convention Center, Avenida Alvaro Alonso Barba, Isla de la Cartuja, 41092 Seville, Spain, Seville, Spain, 2018-05-14 - 2018-05-18
Keywords: high current, heaterless, Hollow cathode discharge, thermionic emission, Lab6

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 421547
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/421547
PURE UUID: a897f077-97d8-4ad4-a4a6-904cdaabe690
ORCID for Alexander Daykin-Iliopoulos: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1541-8912

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 14 Jun 2018 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:41

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Contributors

Author: Alexander Daykin-Iliopoulos ORCID iD
Author: Igor O. Golosnoy
Author: Stephen Gabriel

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