Pure metal vapor plasma source with controlled energy of ions

Author

Musa, Geavit S. ; Ehrich, Horst ; Schuhmann, Jörg

Author_Institution

Nat. Inst. for Laser & Plasma Phys., Bucharest, Romania

Volume

25

Issue

2

fYear

1997

fDate

4/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

386

Lastpage

391

Abstract

A new plasma source, the thermionic vacuum arc (TVA), is presented. With regard to a possible coating application, this new source exhibits two important advantages. First, this arc discharge generates a gas- and macroparticle-free metal vapor plasma with a high degree of ionization up to 20% for nearly every metal. Second, this arc offers the possibility to adjust the directed energy of the metal ions produced just by controlling the operating parameters without specific ion accelerating means. The ion acceleration is caused by the slope of the plasma potential along the direction of plasma expansion. Adjustment of the TVA volt-ampere characteristic by variation of the cathode temperature enables control of this acceleration mechanism. For suitable operating conditions, this arc discharge produces ions with directed energies exceeding 200 eV

Keywords

ionisation; metals; plasma deposition; plasma production; vacuum arcs; 200 eV; acceleration mechanism; arc discharge; cathode temperature; coating application; controlled ion energy; ionization; plasma expansion; pure metal vapor plasma source; thermionic vacuum arc; volt-ampere characteristic; Acceleration; Arc discharges; Coatings; Plasma accelerators; Plasma applications; Plasma displays; Plasma properties; Plasma sources; Plasma temperature; Vacuum arcs;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.602516

Filename

602516