Macroparticle filtering of high-current vacuum arc plasmas
- Fraunhofer Inst. for Materials Physics and Surface Engineering, Dresden (Germany)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., CA (United States)
The transport of vacuum arc plasmas through a 90{degree} curved magnetic macroparticle filter was investigated using a high-current pulsed arc source with a carbon cathode. The peak arc current was in the kiloampiere range, exceeding considerably the level of what has been reported in the literature. The main question investigated was whether magnetic macroparticle filters could be scaled up while maintaining the transport efficiency of small filters. In front of the cathode, the authors found that arc current dependent total ion saturation currents were in the range from 10% to 23% of the arc current. The best relative transmission was 25% (time integrated output/time integrated input) at a duct wall bias of 12.5 V and at an axial magnetic field of about 100 mT. The measured relative transmission of the used high-current arrangement is comparable to what has been observed with other low-current filters. The absolute measurable ion saturation currents at the filter exit reached 70 A at an arc current of about 1,000 A.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 561983
- Journal Information:
- IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. 25, Issue 4; Other Information: PBD: Aug 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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