Transport of a cathodic arc plasma inside a magnetized tube

Conference · Wed Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:323600

Cluggish, B P; Wood, B P ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)

The authors are investigating the implantation and deposition of material on the inside of a steel tube using a cathodic arc plasma source which is located at one end of the tube. To achieve uniform deposition, losses to the walls of the tube must be minimized by an axial magnetic field, allowing the tube to fill uniformly with plasma. However, the losses must also be periodically maximized (by biasing the tube and/or plasma) to implant and deposit the ions on the walls. To this end, they are performing experiments on the transport of cathodic arc plasmas inside magnetized tubes. Previous experiments have shown wall losses much greater than would be predicted by classical, collisional transport theory, but the cause of the anomalous losses is still unknown. In these experiments, they will attempt to reduce these anomalous losses by using a magnetic field strong enough to magnetize the ions; previous work has focused on the regime where the field is only strong enough to magnetize the electrons. The effect of biasing the tube will be compared to the effect of biasing the plasma. Measurements of the ion flux, plasma potential, and plasma velocity as functions of position and experimental parameters will be presented.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 323600
• Report Number(s): CONF-970559--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CATHODES
CHARGED-PARTICLE TRANSPORT
ION IMPLANTATION
LOSSES
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MATERIALS
PERFORMANCE
PLASMA PRODUCTION
STEELS
SURFACE COATING