Examination of a 5 A-class cathode with a LaB6 flat disk emitter in the 2 A–20 A current range

Joussot, Romain; Grimaud, Lou; Mazouffre, S.

doi:10.1016/j.vacuum.2017.09.021

Cited by 29 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…During operation, the thruster body is floating. A heated 5 A-class hollow cathode with a disk-shaped LaB 6 emitter was used to generate the electron current [5,41]. The cathode is located outside the channel with its orifice in the vertical plane that contains the channel outlet, tilted towards the thruster.…”

Section: W-class Hall Thrustermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Equation (5) shows that the way I i is calculated, as well as the treatment of the angular distribution of the ion current density (smoothing, fitting, filtering, interpolation), greatly influence the value of θ div for a given dataset.…”

Section: Ion Current 41 Total Ion Current and Divergence Angle Determinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Electrostatic EP devices such as Hall thrusters (HT), gridded ion engines (GIE) and Field Emission Electric Propulsion (FEEP) thrusters, provide thrust by accelerating and ejecting ions at very high speed. To avoid any charge up effect of the device and the satellite during operation the ion beam must be neutralized with the help of an electron gun, also termed cathode [5,6]. Consequently, the beam of an EP device is composed of ions and electrons during operation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optimization of a Faraday Cup Collimator for Electric Propulsion Device Beam Study: Case of a Hall Thruster

Hugonnaud

Mazouffre

2021

Applied Sciences

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A Faraday cup (FC) is an instrument dedicated to current measurement in beams, jets and plasmas. It consists of a set of polarized electrodes mounted in such a way plasma sheath effect can be neglected, yielding accurate and reliable results. A FC is composed of three main parts, namely a collector or cup, which collects the current, a collimator, which defines the collection area and can contribute to limit electrons from entering the cup and a housing which protects the instrument from perturbation caused by the surrounding medium. In this paper, we provide experimental results of the effect of the collimator upon the measured ion current within the beam of a low-power Hall thruster. Different collimator materials, aperture diameters and polarization voltages are studied to determine the optimum design. Minimum dimension as well as appropriate materials are given as a conclusion in the case of low-power Hall thruster beam investigation.

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Section: W-class Hall Thrustermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ion Current 41 Total Ion Current and Divergence Angle Determinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optimization of a Faraday Cup Collimator for Electric Propulsion Device Beam Study: Case of a Hall Thruster

Hugonnaud

Mazouffre

2021

Applied Sciences

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“…An external igniter electrode has been added to the cathode to ease ignition. The igniter design is based on the one of the 5 A-class cathode studied in our laboratory [19,20]. The igniter is a 2 mm in diameter tungsten rod placed 2 mm downstream the cathode keeper orifice.…”

Section: Cathode Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

Discharge and plasma plume characterization of a 100 A-class LaB6 hollow cathode

Mazouffre

Joussot

Vincent

et al. 2021

Journal of Applied Physics

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HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

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“…LaB 6 is an alternative emitter with a higher work function of 2.67 eV [2,6,[8][9][10][11][12]. Higher temperatures, about 1500 • C, are needed for LaB 6 inserts [13,14]. However, LaB 6 emitters are much less sensitive to impurities in propellant gas and do not need special conditioning procedures, and have a longer lifetime [6,11,15,16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal Analysis and Testing of Different Designs of LaB6 Hollow Cathodes to Be Used in Electric Propulsion Applications

2021

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LaB6 emitters are commonly used in hollow cathodes that are utilized in electric space propulsion systems. In order to obtain necessary surface current emission densities of 1–10 A/cm2 for cathode operations, LaB6 emitters require temperatures above 1500 °C. Hence, the design for LaB6 cathodes presents thermal and mechanical challenges. In this paper, several design iterations for LaB6 hollow cathodes are presented and thermal analyses are conducted for each design. Temperature and heat flux distributions that are obtained from thermal analyses are investigated. The designs are evaluated according to the required heat input to the emitter, and the radiative and conductive heat loss mechanisms. In addition to the thermal analyses, experimental tests are conducted for different cathode designs and, based on these tests, various modes of failure are determined. Revising the cathode design and the material selection iteratively to eliminate the encountered failure mechanisms, a novel cathode design is achieved. Experimental tests of this novel cathode are conducted and current-voltage characteristics are presented for different mass flow rates and for discharge currents between 0.5 and 12 A. Tests and analysis results show that the selection of materials and design are crucial for a sturdy and long lifetime cathode.

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Examination of a 5 A-class cathode with a LaB6 flat disk emitter in the 2 A–20 A current range

Cited by 29 publications

References 35 publications

Optimization of a Faraday Cup Collimator for Electric Propulsion Device Beam Study: Case of a Hall Thruster

Optimization of a Faraday Cup Collimator for Electric Propulsion Device Beam Study: Case of a Hall Thruster

Discharge and plasma plume characterization of a 100 A-class LaB6 hollow cathode

Thermal Analysis and Testing of Different Designs of LaB6 Hollow Cathodes to Be Used in Electric Propulsion Applications

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