TY - JOUR
T1 - Vacuum arc plasma beam produced from an erbium cathode
AU - Zhitomirsky, Vladimir N.
AU - Raveh, Avi
AU - Boxman, Raymond L.
AU - Goldsmith, Samuel
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received December 21, 2008; revised February 19, 2009 and May 21, 2009. First published July 21, 2009; current version published August 12, 2009. This work was supported by a grant from the Israeli Council of High Education and the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission.
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Er plasma was produced by a vacuum arc source with a truncated cone-shaped Er cathode and an annular copper anode. The plasma beam propagated into a cylindrical duct through the annular anode aperture and flowed in vacuum or in a low-pressure oxygen background along an axial magnetic field toward a substrate or an electrostatic ion current probe positioned on the duct axis. The cathode spot location and motion, the cathode erosion, the transport of the plasma beam in the duct, and the coating deposition rate were studied as a function of arc current, axial magnetic field, and oxygen pressure. Favorable conditions for stable arcs were obtained with relatively low arc current (Iarc = 30 - 50 A) and an axial magnetic field of 12 mT, which confined the spot motion on the cathode apex. Under such conditions, the rates of the cathode erosion and coating deposition were ∼235 μg/C and 2-5 μm/min, respectively. With higher Iarc (150-175 A), the cathode spots tended to move on the circumference of the large cone base, eroding a deep groove, which significantly decreased the cathode life.
AB - Er plasma was produced by a vacuum arc source with a truncated cone-shaped Er cathode and an annular copper anode. The plasma beam propagated into a cylindrical duct through the annular anode aperture and flowed in vacuum or in a low-pressure oxygen background along an axial magnetic field toward a substrate or an electrostatic ion current probe positioned on the duct axis. The cathode spot location and motion, the cathode erosion, the transport of the plasma beam in the duct, and the coating deposition rate were studied as a function of arc current, axial magnetic field, and oxygen pressure. Favorable conditions for stable arcs were obtained with relatively low arc current (Iarc = 30 - 50 A) and an axial magnetic field of 12 mT, which confined the spot motion on the cathode apex. Under such conditions, the rates of the cathode erosion and coating deposition were ∼235 μg/C and 2-5 μm/min, respectively. With higher Iarc (150-175 A), the cathode spots tended to move on the circumference of the large cone base, eroding a deep groove, which significantly decreased the cathode life.
KW - Erbium
KW - Magnetic confinement
KW - Plasma measurements
KW - Vacuum arcs
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=69249216489&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TPS.2009.2024671
DO - 10.1109/TPS.2009.2024671
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AN - SCOPUS:69249216489
VL - 37
SP - 1517
EP - 1523
JO - IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
JF - IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
SN - 0093-3813
IS - 8 SPEC. ISS. PART 1
ER -