Vacuum arc ion sources—Micro to macro

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...

Damping Properties of Arc Ion Plating NiCrAlY Coating with Vacuum Annealing

NiCrAlY coating was prepared on a stainless steel substrate by an arc ion plating machine and the annealing experiments were carried out at different temperatures using a tube furnace. The effects of annealing temperatures on the morphology, structure, chemical composition and phase structure of the coating were characterized by SEM, EDS and XRD, respectively. The change of microstructure is di...

Axial ion charge state distribution in the vacuum arc plasma jet

We report on our experimental studies of the ion charge state distribution ~CSD! of vacuum arc plasmas using a time-of-flight diagnostic method. The dependence of the CSD on the axial distance from the plasma source region was measured for a titanium vacuum arc. It was found that the axial CSD profile is nonuniform. Generally, the mean charge state increases approximately linearly with axial di...

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....