Effect of multiple current spikes on the enhancement of ion charge states of vacuum arc plasmas

Journal Article · Thu Jun 15 04:00:00 EDT 2000 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.373546· OSTI ID:20216518

Yushkov, George Yu ^[1]; Oks, Efim M ^[1]; Anders, Andre ^[2]; Brown, Ian G ^[2]

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1. High Current Electronics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, and State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics, Tomsk 634050, Russia (Russian Federation)
2. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)

Ion charge state distributions of vacuum arc ion sources are correlated to the arc operating voltage. Recent research has shown that an enhancement of ion charges via an increase of the arc voltage can be achieved utilizing the transient processes that accompany an arc current spike. The idea investigated is to further enhance the ion charge states by multiple current pulses. It is shown that although the ion charge states are enhanced compared to quasi-dc operation, the application of a sequence of pulses does not lead to the desired additional increase in charge states. This can be attributed to the additional plasma production that is caused by higher arc currents: The additional power supplied to the plasma is distributed over a larger number of plasma particles. One can expect that in the limiting case of many current spikes, the ion charges state distribution approaches the one known for arc plasmas at higher discharge current. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.

• OSTI ID: 20216518
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 87; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CATHODES
CHARGE DISTRIBUTION
CHARGE STATES
ELECTRIC ARCS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
ION SOURCES
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PLASMA
PULSES
VACUUM SYSTEMS