Vacuum Arc Ion Flux From Vacuum Interrupter Contact Gap

Ion energy distribution functions of vacuum arc plasmas

Temporal development of ion beam mean charge state in pulsed vacuum arc ion sources.

Vacuum arc ion sources, commonly also known as "Mevva" ion sources, are used to generate intense pulsed metal ion beams. It is known that the mean charge state of the ion beam lies between 1 and 4, depending on cathode material, arc current, arc pulse duration, presence or absence of magnetic field at the cathode, as well as background gas pressure. A characteristic of the vacuum arc ion beam i...

An interchangeable-cathode vacuum arc plasma source.

A simplified vacuum arc design [based on metal vapor vacuum arc (MeVVA) concepts] is employed as a plasma source for a study of a (7)Be non-neutral plasma. The design includes a mechanism for interchanging the cathode source. Testing of the plasma source showed that it is capable of producing on the order of 10(12) charges at confinable energies using a boron-carbide disk as the cathode target....

Plasma instability of a vacuum arc centrifuge.

Ever since conception of the vacuum arc centrifuge in 1980, periodic fluctuations in the ion saturation current and floating potential have been observed in Langmuir probe measurements in the rotation region of a vacuum arc centrifuge. In this work we develop a linearized theoretical model to describe a range of instabilities in the vacuum arc centrifuge plasma column, and then test the validit...

Phonon transport across a vacuum gap

D. P. Sellan,1 E. S. Landry,2,3 K. Sasihithlu,4 A. Narayanaswamy,4 A. J. H. McGaughey,3,* and C. H. Amon1,3 1Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G8, Canada 2United Technologies Research Center, East Hartford, Connecticut 06108, USA 3Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA 4D...