Acta Astronautica 206 (2023) 89–99

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Acta Astronautica
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/actaastro

Low power arcjet thruster using LaB6 hollow cathode

Takuma Takahashi, Kiyoshi Kinefuchi *
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, 464-8603, Japan

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: A 100-W class low power arcjet thruster using a hollow cathode was proposed, with the goal of reducing cathode
Electric propulsion erosion. The hollow cathode’s emitter was lanthanum hexaboride expecting its excellent thermionic emission
Electrothermal acceleration performance. The experiment used argon as a propellant and compared two different emitter lengths. The
Cathodes
estimated emitter temperature was almost the same regardless of the emitter length, however, due to of the
Lanthanum hexaboride
efficient heat exchange with the longer arc plasma region, the longer emitter provided better performance with
higher discharge voltage. Additionally, the hollow cathode was compared to the conventional rod cathode, and
the hollow cathode was found to have some advantages. The specific impulse of the hollow cathodes was higher
than that of the rod cathode at low flow rate. The results showed that the hollow cathode is best for high specific
power and high specific impulse operation. The unstable transition between low- and high-voltage modes has
been observed in the rod cathode, but not in the hollow cathode configurations. Helium was put to the test as a
propellant and compared to argon for simulate the future use of hydrogen as a propellant. The thrust efficiency
was lower due to the high discharge voltage and significant heat loss, but the specific impulse was higher as
expected. No severe recession or erosion of the emitter was observed after the test campaign, but some surface
color change was seen which may affect in the long-term operation.

1. Introduction
Arcjet thrusters are classified as electrothermal electric propulsion
because they provide thermal propellant acceleration by adding heat to
gas via an arc discharge and then converting the thermal energy to ve­
locity by expanding the gas in a supersonic converging–diverging nozzle
[1]. Arcjet thrusters have a high thrust-to-power ratio, a moderate
specific impulse, a small system mass, and a low development cost [2].
Although hydrazine is the most common propellant, arcjets can use a
wide range of propellant species [3]. A rod cathode with a conical tip is
commonly used in arcjet thrusters. The arc discharge concentrates at the
tip of the cathode, causing severe erosion [4]. For arcjets, erosion is a
life-limiting issue that must be addressed to ensure long-term operation.
Hollow cathodes have been proposed to reduce the discharge concen­
tration and thus improve cathode erosion. The erosion rate was
improved when a tungsten hollow cathode was used [5], but the per­
formance was lower than when a conventional rod cathode was used
[6].
With hydrazine as a propellant, 1 kW class medium power arcjet
thrusters have been widely used for geostationary satellites in north­
–south station keeping applications [7,8]. High power arcjets are
suitable for cargo missions [9] and are also used in ground tests to
simulate reentry or hypersonic flight environments for thermal protec­
tion because they provide high enthalpy flow [10]. Low power thrusters
with an input power of approximately 100 W are required for recent
advancements in small satellites [11,12]. The acceleration types of
electrothermal, electromagnetic, and electrostatic small electric
thrusters up to 500 W input power were studied [13]. Generally, in small
thrusters, the thrust efficiency was limited to up to 20% with a 100 W
operation due to significant wall energy losses. Resistojets, a type of
electrothermal thruster, were investigated using xenon and argon as
propellants with a targeting power range of 20–50 W [14–16]. A 100 W
class low power arcjet was investigated using ammonia, hydrogen, and
argon as propellants with only the argon propellant achieving the
desired 100 W operation due to its low discharge voltage [17]. These
small thrusters are primarily used for primary propulsion on small sat­
ellites. In addition, typical cold gas jet thrusters can readily replace to
resistojets and arcjets. Hence, they can also be used for reaction control
in all-electric satellites using xenon as a common propellant in
conjunction with a primary electric propulsion system such as ion and
Hall thrusters. The arcjet thruster can be used not only for the applica­
tions listed above but also for a neutralizer for typical ion and Hall

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: kiyoshi.kinefuchi@mae.nagoya-u.ac.jp (K. Kinefuchi).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.02.015
Received 14 June 2022; Received in revised form 22 October 2022; Accepted 9 February 2023
Available online 10 February 2023
0094-5765/© 2023 IAA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
T. Takahashi and K. Kinefuchi Acta Astronautica 206 (2023) 89–99

thrusters with thrust generation [18]. The life-limiting issue in con­ the result of argon propellant. Finally, the visual observation of the
ventional rod cathode arcjets should be improved in these applications. emitter was conducted after the test campaign to discuss the degradation
To reduce the issue of cathode erosion without performance degra­ characteristics.
dation, we propose a 100-W class low power arcjet thruster that uses a
lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) hollow cathode rather than a conven­ 2. Experimental apparatus
tional rod cathode. According to the previous studies, the thruster per­
formance of hollow cathode is expected to be lower than that of Fig. 1 depicts the arcjet thruster used in the experiment. Fig. 2 shows
conventional rod cathode. Because LaB6 has a low work function and the appearance. Three cathode configurations were used in the experi­
excellent thermionic emission performance with high robustness ment. The hollow cathode with LaB6 emitter with 8 mm in length was
[19–21], it was selected as the cathode emitter material, with the called “L8” and 16 mm in length was dubbed “L16.” The hollow cylinder
expectation of improved thrust performance. Because the performance shape of both L8 and L16 has a 4-mm inner diameter. In the axial di­
of an arcjet thruster with a LaB6 hollow cathode has never been studied rection, L16 was created by connecting two L8 emitters. As shown in
before, the basic thruster performance was obtained in this study. As Fig. 1, the emitters were covered with a 1-mm thick tantalum cathode
hollow cathode thruster using other low work function emitter, the tube with a 1-mm gap between the cathode tube and the anode. The rod
barium-oxide (BaO) hollow cathode, which was originally developed for
the T6 ion thruster with xenon as a propellant, has been proposed and
tested for an 80 W microthruster [22]. Gessini et al. also investigated
thrust generation of the T6 hollow cathode thruster and the result sug­
gested electrothermal acceleration [23,24]. More recently, an electro­
thermal thruster using a disc-shaped emitter made of C12A7 electride,
which is also a low work function material, was investigated [25]. In
these previous studies, anode configuration, such as orifice diameter,
nozzle divergent angle, and effect of an insulating layer on the anode,
was investigated in detail, but the effect of the emitter configuration has
never been discussed yet. Therefore, the effect of cathode emitter length
on the arc efficiency was investigated and discussed based on the
effective arc length and plenum temperature with argon as a propellant.
The hollow cathode results were compared with a conventional rod
cathode. Furthermore, helium as a low molar weight gas was used as a
propellant to obtain high-specific impulse operation applicability for
simulate the future use of hydrogen as a propellant and compared with Fig. 2. Photograph of the arcjet thruster.

Fig. 1. Arcjet thruster assembly and cathode configurations. (a) Thruster assembly, (b) L8 hollow cathode, (c) L16 hollow cathode, and (d) rod cathode.

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cathode with conical tip was also used to compare with hollow config­
urations and was called “Rod.” The rod cathode was made from 2%
ceriated tungsten, and the vertex angle of the tip was 60◦ . There was a 1
mm gap between the cathode tip and the throat. For the three cathode
configurations, the supersonic nozzle or anode electrode was the same.
The throat diameter was 0.5 mm, and the expansion ratio was 64.
Because of the high temperature operation, the nozzle was made of pure
tungsten.
Fig. 3 depicts the experimental setup. The experiment occurred in a
3.2 m long vacuum chamber with a radius of 1.2 m. The thruster was
mounted on a pendulum-type thrust stand with a 300-mm-long stand
arm supported by a two-knife-edge fulcrum [26,27]. The knife edge was
made of stainless-steel grade 304, with a width of 10 mm and an apex
angle of 90◦ . Each knife edge was mounted on a V-shaped groove with
an opening angle of 120◦ . The displacement of the pendulum was
measured by a laser displacement sensor (Keyence IL-S025) at the tip of Fig. 4. L8 hollow cathode arcjet in operation with argon flow rate of 600 sccm
the aluminum extension arm, with the distance from the fulcrum being and discharge current of 8 A.
128 mm. The sensitivity of the thrust stand was calibrated by using a
pulley and weight arrangement driven by a direct-current motor main­
tained at the same ambient pressure as that during the thruster opera­ F2
ηt = (2)
tions. The mass of each calibration weight was measured beforehand by 2ṁ(ṁH0 + VJ)
an electronic balance (Shimadzu AUW320) with ±0.1 mg accuracy. The
resulted thrust accuracy was ±0.3 mN. The back pressure was 10 Pa at where V is the discharge voltage, J is the discharge current, and H0 is the
an argon flow rate of 600 sccm. No change in the thrust was observed cold flow enthalpy. The enthalpy H was estimated assuming choked flow
with lower back pressure; thus, we confirmed no flow separation in the in the nozzle [28].
nozzle in this vacuum condition. For the discharge, a direct current ( )2 ( )γ+1
power supply (Zhaoxin KXN-6040, 60V/10A) was used and the ignition Cd A* Pp γ2 2 γ− 1
H= (3)
was achieved applying high voltage pulse. A mass flow controller ṁ γ− 1 γ+1
(Kofloc 3660 series 1000 sccm full scale, ±10 sccm accuracy) was used
to control and measure the mass flow rate. The plenum pressure was where A* is the throat cross-sectional area, Pp is the plenum pressure, γ is
measured by Panasonic DP-100 (±1 kP accuracy). All the data was ob­ the ratio of specific heat, and Cd is the nozzle discharge coefficient. Both
tained by LabVIEW with 100 Hz sampling rate. Fig. 4 depicts a photo­ cold flow enthalpy H0 and hot flow enthalpy Hh can be calculated from
graph of a thruster in operation with L8 hollow cathode, flow rate of 600 above equation. Cd is defined as:
sccm, and 8 A discharge current. ṁ
Cd = , (4)
ṁt
3. Results and discussion
where ṁt is the theoretical mass flow rate in choked flow:
The experimental data reduction was conducted as follows. The √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
( )γ+1
specific impulse Isp was calculated from the measured thrust F and the pp A* 2 γ− 1
ṁt = √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ γ , (5)
mass flow rate ṁ. RTp γ+1
F
Isp = (1) where R is the gas constant, and Tp is the plenum temperature. The arc
ṁg
efficiency, which is the ratio of propellant enthalpy after arc discharge
Thrust efficiency ηt was estimated using the following equation. ṁHh and sum of cold flow enthalpy ṁH0 and input electric power VJ, is
written as:
ṁHh
ηarc = . (6)
ṁH0 + VJ
The cold flow experiment provided Cd = 0.97 in the hollow config­
urations and 0.78 in the rod configuration. Assuming Cd is maintained in
the hot flow, ηarc can be approximately estimated from the above
equations. The specific power Ps , input energy into the unit mass of the
propellant, is defined as follows.
VJ
Ps = . (7)
ṁ

3.1. L8 hollow cathode

The characteristics of the L8 hollow cathode are discussed first. The

Fig. 3. Experimental setup.
example of raw data of discharge current, voltage and thrust with
discharge current of 2 A and flow rate of 400 sccm are shown in Fig. 5.
The high voltage pulse for ignition was followed propellant injection to
the thruster. No significant discharge oscillation or instability was
observed: the amplitude of the discharge voltage oscillation was
approximately ±0.2 V. The thrust before and after the arc discharge did

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The current–voltage characteristics of the L8 hollow cathode are

shown in Fig. 6. The arc discharge exhibited a typical drooping char­
acteristic. A higher flow rate resulted in a lower discharge voltage
because it led to short arc length as discussed later in Section 3.4. It is
worth noting that the transition between low- and high-voltage modes,
which is common in conventional rod cathode arcjets, has never been
observed in the hollow cathode configuration.
Figs. 7 and 8 depict the thrust and specific impulse, respectively. The
high thrust-to-power ratio, over 100 mN/kW, and moderate specific
impulse, 80 s or less, indicated an electrothermal acceleration of the
thruster. As expected, the thrust increased with mass flow rate and
discharge current. The cold flow specific impulse is approximately 30 s
and over twice as much specific impulse as the cold flow was obtained in
hot flow operation even with low power of 2 A and 40 W. Specific im­
pulse improved as the discharge current was increased, but it was nearly
saturated over 6 A due to increased heat loss as discussed later. Due to
higher specific power or energy into the unit mass of propellant, a higher
specific impulse was obtained with a low mass flow rate and a high
current.
Figs. 9 and 10 show the thrust efficiency and arc efficiency, respec­
tively. Because high flow velocity or high Reynolds number enhanced
heat exchange in the arc discharge region, both thrust and arc effi­
ciencies improved as the mass flow rate increased. Because the high
current and high electric power operation cause heat loss due to the
temperature difference between the hot flow and surroundings, these
efficiencies were reduced. In addition, the arc characteristics changed
depending on the discharge current and flow rate and affected the arc
efficiency. The arc and thermal characteristics will be discussed in detail
in Section 3.4.

3.2. L16 hollow cathode

Fig. 5. Raw data of discharge current, voltage and thrust of L8 hollow cathode
Figs. 11–13 show the specific impulse, thrust efficiency, and arc ef­
with argon, 2 A, and 400 sccm.
ficiency of the L16 hollow cathode, respectively. The thrust character­
istic of L16 was similar to L8, but the thruster performance in the L16
not change significantly in this case because the thruster has already
configuration was improved. L16 achieved a maximum specific impulse
warmed up through the previous ignition. The thrust signal from the
of 94 s and maximum thrust efficiency of 11%. 100-W class Hall
laser displacement sensor had a sinusoidal waveform because of the
thrusters achieve total thrust efficiency of 10–20% [29]. A low power
characteristics of the pendulum thrust stand. Time average value in the
arcjet thruster with argon propellant showed 10–20% thrust efficiency
steady state was adopted as the measured thrust at each operation point.
and 150 s specific impulse [17]. The efficiency of the present thruster

Fig. 6. Current–voltage characteristic of L8 hollow cathode with argon. Fig. 7. Thrust characteristic of L8 hollow cathode with argon.

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Fig. 8. Specific impulse characteristic of L8 hollow cathode with argon.

Fig. 10. Arc efficiency characteristic of L8 hollow cathode with argon.

Fig. 9. Thrust efficiency characteristic of L8 hollow cathode with argon.

Fig. 11. Specific impulse characteristic of L16 hollow cathode with argon.

should be improved, but it is still promising considering some advan­

tages and applications discussed in the Introduction and the expected
life-time improvement. Because of the long emitter length, the discharge
region expanded, allowing for efficient heat exchange between the arc
and propellant. As a result, L16 outperformed L8 with respect to thruster
performance. The comparison indicates that the emitter dimension is
remarkable, and that thruster performance can be improved.
3.3. Comparison of three cathode configurations
At an 8 A discharge current, the three cathode configurations, L8,
L16, and Rod, are compared. The transition between low and high
modes was observed only in rod cathode operation. The high mode data
are shown in the following plots for the rod cathode. The discharge
voltage at 8 A is compared in Fig. 14. With respect to discharge voltage,
there is no significant difference between the rod and hollow cathodes.
The discharge voltage of L8 is lower than that of L16. As previously
stated, the arc plasma was widely distributed in L16. The lower
discharge voltage was caused by the short arc region in L8.
Fig. 15 depicts the specific impulse at 8 A. The specific impulse of
L16 was always higher than that of L8. At low mass flow rates, the
hollow cathodes outperform the rod cathode, but at high mass flow
rates, the rod cathode appears to catch up or even outperform the hollow
cathodes. Additionally, the hollow cathode and rod cathode had oppo­
site specific impulse characteristics, the hollow cathodes’ specific

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T. Takahashi and K. Kinefuchi
Fig. 12. Thrust efficiency characteristic of L16 hollow cathode with argon.
Fig. 13. Arc efficiency characteristic of L16 hollow cathode with argon.
impulse decreased as the mass flow rate increased, whereas the rod
cathode’s specific impulse increased. Despite the lower specific power at
higher mass flow rates, the heat exchange in the rod cathode was
significantly improved, and the specific impulse was improved. The arc
efficiency is shown in Fig. 16 to help explain this. As expected,
increasing the mass flow rate improved arc efficiency significantly in the
rod cathode.
In Figs. 17 and 18, the specific impulse and thrust efficiency are
plotted against specific power, respectively. Each plot of cathodes is on a
single curve. The specific impulse of the hollow cathodes increased with
the specific power. The rod cathode showed lower performance over 8
MJ/kg. This shows that the hollow cathode is capable of high specific
power and high specific impulse operation. As the specific power
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Acta Astronautica 206 (2023) 89–99
Fig. 14. Discharge voltage at a discharge current of 8 A for three cathode
configurations with argon.
Fig. 15. Specific impulse at a discharge current of 8 A for three cathode con­
figurations with argon.
increased, the thrust efficiency decreased. The wall surface area is
relatively large in comparison to the volume of the hot plasma due to the
small thruster size. When operating at high specific power or high pro­
pellant temperature, the wall heat loss becomes significant. The effect of
emitter temperature distribution and the size of the arc plasma region
were also other factors of the decrease in efficiency at high specific
power.
3.4. Effect of emitter length
The difference in arc efficiency between L8 and L16 is discussed.
T. Takahashi and K. Kinefuchi Acta Astronautica 206 (2023) 89–99

Fig. 18. Thrust efficiency vs. specific power for all experimental data
Fig. 16. Arc efficiency at a discharge current of 8 A for three cathode config­ with argon.
urations with argon.
10 and 20, and here we take 10 [30]. The plenum temperature Tp can be
estimated from the enthalpy in Eq. (3). The estimated electrical con­
ductivity was almost the same, but slightly higher for L16 because the
arc efficiency was better for L16. The effective arc length Larc can be
approximately calculated using plasma impedance R from R = V/J =
Larc /(σSem ), thus,
V σ Sem
Larc = (9)
J

where Sem is the internal cross-sectional area of the emitter. Estimated

Larc from the above equations is shown in Fig. 19 for the plenum pres­
sure. Expectedly, L16 had a longer Larc than that of L8, and they were of
the order of emitter lengths, 8 or 16 mm. The figure indicates the high

Fig. 17. Specific impulse vs. specific power for all experimental data
with argon.

Since the mean free path of ions to neutrals was approximately 1 mm,
which is shorter than the characteristic length of the emitter, we assume
that the plasma had reached thermal equilibrium due to sufficient col­
lisions between particles. In the following discussion, the physical
quantities in the hollow cathode are represented by spatially averaged
values. The electrical conductivity σ of the plasma inside the emitter is
estimated using the Spitzer’s formula:

T 3/2
σ = 1.53 × 10− 2 p
[1 / Ω • m] (8)
ln Λ
Fig. 19. Effective arc length vs. plenum pressure of hollow cathodes for all
where ln Λ is the coulomb logarithm. ln Λ usually takes values between
experimental data with argon.

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T. Takahashi and K. Kinefuchi Acta Astronautica 206 (2023) 89–99

plenum pressure, i.e., high discharge current and high mass flow rate,
leads to the short arc length. This is because the arc discharge concen­
trates near the downstream of the emitter at the high pressure, while the
lower pressure allows the discharge to be located deep in the emitter
interior. A similar trend has been observed in the emitter temperature
distribution and internal plasma density of 50-A class LaB6 hollow
cathodes [31–33]. It was reported that the temperature distribution
peaked near the downstream edge of the emitter at high discharge
current, whereas the temperature distribution peaked near the upstream
or was flat at low discharge current. These previous studies also suggest
that the arc discharge region was small at high discharge current or high
pressure.Considering the above, a high temperature region at the up­
stream surface of the emitter was mainly responsible for the thermionic
electron emission in the present thruster because of the relatively low
discharge current.
Fig. 20 shows arc efficiency vs. effective arc length Larc of L16. The
arc efficiency increases almost in proportion to the arc length. The long
arc length provides a large heat exchange volume between the arc and
propellant flow. L16 had the longer arc length and therefore the arc
efficiency of L16 was superior to that of L8. The arc efficiency also
improved with increasing flow rate because the Reynolds number
increased and the heat exchange was enhanced. The relationship be­
tween the plenum temperature and arc efficiency of L16 is shown in
Fig. 21. Arc efficiency vs. plenum temperature of L16 hollow cathode.
Fig. 21. The arc efficiency tends to decrease with increase in the plenum
temperature because of the heat loss to surroundings. The difference in
current J has the following relationship to the emitter inner surface area
arc efficiency at the same plenum temperature is due to the effects of the
Aem .
arc length and the flow rate.
Next, we discuss the temperature distribution in the emitter. Polk J = jAem (11)
et al. successfully measured emitter temperature in a large 50-A class
From the above equations, the emitter surface temperature Tem
hollow cathode [32], however, the present arcjet thruster was too small
required to obtain the discharge current J in the experiment was esti­
to install temperature sensors. Therefore, here the temperature distri­
mated to be around 1700–1800 K. However, since J increases expo­
bution is discussed using the experimental data. The current density of
nentially with Tem , the difference in Tem between L8 and L16 at the same
thermionic electron from emitter surface j is expressed by the following
discharge current and flow rate was estimated to be roughly 60 K.
Richardson-Dushman equation.
( ) Hence, the effect of the emitter surface temperature difference between
eφ L8 and L16 on the thruster performance is negligible.
2
j = ATem exp − (10)
kB Tem On the other hand, the results of estimating the plenum temperature
Tp from the enthalpy in equation (3) are shown in Fig. 22 for L16. As the
where A is a constant with a value of 120 A/cm2K2, Tem is the temper­ discharge current increased, the plenum temperature also increased as
ature of the inner surface of the emitter, e is elementary charge, φ is work expected. In most cases, the plenum temperature Tp was below the
function of LaB6 [31], and kB is Boltzmann’s constant. The discharge emitter surface temperature Tem of 1700–1800 K. As previously
mentioned, the majority of the discharge current was appeared to be

Fig. 20. Arc efficiency vs. effective arc length of L16 hollow cathode. Fig. 22. Plenum temperature vs. discharge current of L16 hollow cathode.

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T. Takahashi and K. Kinefuchi Acta Astronautica 206 (2023) 89–99

provided from the hot area upstream of the emitter. The plenum tem­
perature Tp can be regarded as the propellant temperature near the
downstream end of the emitter. Since the propellant temperature
reached the maximum at the upstream of the emitter and decreased
toward downstream end, Tp seemed to be below the surface temperature
Tem . On the other hand, at the high discharge current, the hot spot in the
emitter moved downstream. The effective arc length became shorter,
and the plenum temperature Tp increased.

3.5. Operation with helium as a propellant

With helium as a propellant and a discharge current of 2 A, the L8

LaB6 hollow cathode arcjet thruster was operated. Low molar weight
propellants, such as hydrogen, have the advantage of high specific im­
pulse [34]. In addition, the use of hydrogen is important from an in-situ
resource utilization perspective: the lunar water can be used to produce
hydrogen for propellant [35]. In comparison to the argon case, Fig. 23
shows the discharge voltage. Because helium has high ionization energy,
its discharge voltage was higher. As expected, the specific impulse was
higher than that of argon, but the increment from the cold flow was
small, as shown in Fig. 24. With a higher helium flow rate, the specific
impulse appeared to improve. Helium appeared to provide high per­
formance at over 1000 sccm, but lower performance than argon at less
than 1000 sccm, according to the thrust efficiency shown in Fig. 25. A
photograph of helium operation with a discharge current of 2 A and Fig. 24. Specific impulse of cold flow and at a discharge current of 2 A for L8
mass flow rate of 600 sccm is shown in Fig. 26. The red heat around the hollow cathode with helium and argon.
nozzle was visible even at 2 A, indicating significant heat loss. Helium
has a high heat transfer coefficient, which could explain why the thrust
efficiency is so low.
Fig. 27 shows a photograph of the emitter of L8 hollow cathode after
the test campaign. It was taken from the downstream. No significant
surface erosion or recession was observed. However, the surface color
has been changed from the original purple color of LaB6. The inner
surface appeared to be black in color, and the downstream edge
appeared to be gray and blue. The black contamination probably orig­
inated from the carbon parts around the emitter. The carbon contami­
nation adhered early in the experimental campaign. The carbon
contamination deteriorates the work function of LaB6 emitter [36,37].
The gray and blue colors indicate the change of the LaB6 composition.

Fig. 25. Thrust efficiency at a discharge current of 2 A for L8 hollow cathode

with helium and argon.

The color of B-rich and La-rich regions are reported to be blue and gray,
respectively [37]. No significant performance degradation was observed
in the present experiment; however, the life time or degradation char­
acteristics of the thruster should be investigated through long-term
operation.

4. Conclusions

With argon as a propellant, a 100-W class low power arcjet thruster

Fig. 23. Discharge voltage at discharge current of 2 A for L8 hollow cathode using a hollow cathode was developed and tested. Because of diffusive
with helium and argon.

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T. Takahashi and K. Kinefuchi
Fig. 26. Photograph of L8 hollow cathode arcjet operation with helium.
Discharge current of 2 A and mass flow rate of 600 sccm.
Fig. 27. Photograph of the emitter of L8 hollow cathode after the test
campaign. Taken from downstream.
discharge, the arcjet’s life-limiting issue, cathode erosion, should be
improved in the hollow cathode. LaB6 was used as the emitter expecting
excellent thermionic emission and thruster performance improvement.
The arcjet thruster was successfully operated with low input power,
ranging from 40 to 160 W, and provided 11% thrust efficiency. The
thruster’s electrothermal acceleration characteristics were revealed by
the experimental results. The two emitter lengths, L8 and L16, were
compared, and the longer emitter provided higher performance with
higher discharge voltage because of efficient heat exchange with a
longer arc plasma region. The arc efficiency increased with the arc
length and Reynolds number in the emitter while decreased with the
plenum temperature.
When the hollow cathodes were compared with a conventional rod
cathode, it was discovered that the hollow cathodes had some advan­
tages. The specific impulse of the hollow cathodes increased as the mass
flow rate decreased, whereas that of the rod cathode decreased. The arc
efficiency was significantly improved with an increase in the mass flow
rate in the rod cathode. The result indicated that the optimum operation
point is different depending on the cathode configuration; the hollow
cathode is suitable for high specific power or low mass flow rate oper­
ation with high specific impulse, whereas the rod cathode is best for low
specific power operation or high mass flow rate. The transition between
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Acta Astronautica 206 (2023) 89–99
low- and high-voltage modes was observed in the rod cathode but not in
the hollow cathode configuration.
Helium was used as a propellant for the hollow cathode arcjet and
compared to argon because low molar weight propellants such as
hydrogen have the advantage of high specific impulse. The thruster was
successfully operated with helium, resulting in a higher specific impulse,
as predicted. However, higher discharge voltage was observed due to
high ionization energy and significant heat loss, resulting in lower thrust
efficiency than argon. Helium’s performance appeared to improve with
a higher mass flow rate.
No significant surface erosion or recession of the emitter was
observed after the test campaign. However, the surface color has been
changed from the original purple color of LaB6. No significant perfor­
mance deterioration was seen in the present experiment; however, the
life time or degradation characteristics of the thruster should be inves­
tigated through longterm operation.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Prof. Akihiro Sasoh and Prof. Dai­
suke Ichihara of Nagoya University for their advice.
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