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Updated: Mar 7, 2026

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Note: Improved heater design for high-temperature hollow cathodes.

M S McDonald1, A D Gallimore2, D M Goebel3

  • 1Spacecraft Engineering Department, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA.

The Review of Scientific Instruments
|March 3, 2017
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

A new rhenium-boron nitride heater design reliably ignites lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) hollow cathodes. This durable heater shows no filament degradation after hundreds of hours, even at high operating temperatures.

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Area of Science:

  • Materials Science
  • Plasma Physics
  • Vacuum Technology

Background:

  • Thermionic cathodes require specialized heaters for operation.
  • Existing heater designs face limitations in durability and temperature resistance.
  • Lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) hollow cathodes demand high operating temperatures.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To present an improved heater design for thermionic cathodes.
  • To evaluate the performance and durability of a rhenium-boron nitride heater.
  • To compare the new design with existing cathode heater technologies.

Main Methods:

  • Fabrication of a heater using a rhenium filament within a boron nitride ceramic sleeve.
  • Testing the heater's performance with a lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) hollow cathode.
  • Operating the heater under vacuum with an inert gas discharge.

Main Results:

  • The rhenium-boron nitride heater reliably and repeatably ignited the LaB6 hollow cathode.
  • No noticeable filament degradation was observed over hundreds of hours of operation.
  • The heater materials (boron nitride and rhenium) possess high decomposition and melting points suitable for high-temperature applications.

Conclusions:

  • The developed heater design is simple to fabricate and highly durable.
  • The rhenium-boron nitride heater is an attractive option for high-temperature LaB6 hollow cathode applications.
  • This design overcomes limitations of current state-of-the-art cathode heaters.