The development of lanthanum hexaboride (lab6) hollow cathodes for ion thruster in china
- Paper number
IAC-11,C4,4,9,x10034
- Author
Dr. Ning GUO, Lanzhou Institute of Physics, China
- Coauthor
Mr. Wen-feng Li, Lanzhou Institute of Physics, China
- Coauthor
Mr. Fun-jun Tang, Lanzhou Institute of Physics, China
- Year
2011
- Abstract
Hollow cathode is a core part of an ion thruster, because its lifetime and reliability are major limit restrict those of ion thruster. A lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) hollow cathode has been developed for 20 cm ion thruster in china. This paper describes the design, performance, and life test of the LaB6 hollow cathodes, and the operation characteristics of 20 cm ion thruster with the LaB6 cathode is discussed as well. So far，the LaB6 cathode has been operated successfully for 3700 hours and 7000 times on/off, and its heaters has been tested about l4000 times on/off. The cathode life can be predicted to more than 40000 hours.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)