Ion flux transmission along an insulating duct with an axial magnetic field

Abstract

An experimental study of the metallic ion flux in a pulsed copper vacuum arc with an annular anode and operated with an axial magnetic field is presented. It is employed an insulating drift duct surrounded by an external coil which generates an axial magnetic field. Operating the arc under vacuum condition, measurements of the ion flux and the plasma potential at different axial positions along the duct and different magnetic field values are presented. The arc voltage and the total discharge current as functions of the magnetic field intensity are also reported. We find that the decay of the ion flux through the duct walls is not exponential. A simplified model for the ion emission is used in order to obtain an interpretation of the measured ion current for different axial positions and magnetic field strength, and a good agreement with the experimental points is found.

Study of Linear Magnetic Filters in a Pulsed Copper Vacuum Arc

“…4. In a previous work [3] we found that for our device geometry the anodic sheath potential drop was about 10 V, so considering that the plasma potential (V pl ) can be obtained as the arc voltage (| 45 V) minus the anodic potencial drop, we found V pl a 35 V. In Fig. 5 the filter floating potential as a function of the filter magnetic field is shown.…”

“…In a previous work [3] a non-conducting straight filter was employed to study the ion flux transmission from a pulsed vacuum arc. The main drawback of this kind of filter is the fact that it cannot be biased.…”