Axial ion charge state distribution in the vacuum arc plasma jet

Journal Article · Tue Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 2000 · Review of Scientific Instruments

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1150265· OSTI ID:20215402

Keidar, M ^[1]; Brown, I G ^[2]; Beilis, I I ^[3]

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1. Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 (United States)
2. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
3. Electrical Discharge and Plasma Laboratory, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, (Israel)

We report on our experimental studies of the ion charge state distribution (CSD) of vacuum arc plasmas using a time-of-flight diagnostic method. The dependence of the CSD on the axial distance from the plasma source region was measured for a titanium vacuum arc. It was found that the axial CSD profile is nonuniform. Generally, the mean charge state increases approximately linearly with axial distance from about 1.7 at 12 cm up to 1.9 at 25 cm from the plasma source. A model for ion transport in the free boundary plasma jet is proposed which is based on the existence of an electric field in the quasineutral plasma. This model qualitatively explains the experimental results. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.

• OSTI ID: 20215402
• Journal Information: Review of Scientific Instruments, Journal Name: Review of Scientific Instruments Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 71; ISSN 0034-6748; ISSN RSINAK
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CHARGE STATES
ELECTRIC ARCS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
ION DENSITY
ION SOURCES
PLASMA JETS
PLASMA PRODUCTION
TITANIUM