A Stationary Vacuum Arc with a Diffuse Spot on a Nonemitting Chrome Cathode

The energy balance and the mechanism of discharge transport on the surface of a thermionic cathode in an arc discharge

“…A hollow tungsten cathode was used in the experiments of An'shakov et al [8,9], the arc burned in argon at atmospheric pressure, and S eT amounted to 10 -2 -10 -1 . In [10][11][12], a vacuum arc with a steady diffuse spot on a chrome cathode was described, in which S eT ≅ 10 -4 .…”

“…A stationary discharge was experimentally investigated in [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. According to the data of [16], a TE deficit was observed in a pulsed arc as well.…”

“…The need for such analysis is further dictated by the observation that, according to the data of [11,12], the hypothesis of ion transport of charge in a vacuum arc on a chrome…”

“…Batenin et al [11,12] investigated a vacuum arc with a stationary diffuse spot on a solid chrome cathode placed in a heat-insulated molybdenum crucible. The arc current density on the cathode was j c ≅ ≅ 10 2 A/cm 2 , the work function of chrome -4.58 eV, The main difference between analysis of energy balance on the cathode surface performed in [4] and that performed in [11] consists in that Batenin et al [11] measured the heat flux Q t and Dorodnov et al [4] estimated this flux.…”

“…The arc current density on the cathode was j c ≅ ≅ 10 2 A/cm 2 , the work function of chrome -4.58 eV, The main difference between analysis of energy balance on the cathode surface performed in [4] and that performed in [11] consists in that Batenin et al [11] measured the heat flux Q t and Dorodnov et al [4] estimated this flux. Another difference lies in the mechanisms of energy transfer from ions to the cathode.…”