Plasma lens clearing of the microdroplets in cathodic arc plasma flow

Summary form only given. An important disadvantage of the cathodic arc deposition is the presence in the plasma flow microdroplet fraction and their inclusion into the coating. The microdroplets adversely affect the performance of the coating and limiting the applications for cathodic arc deposition. First a new original approach for the effective removal of the microdroplets, as well as its conservation and incorporation into the plasma stream produced by erosion plasma sources (vacuum arc or laser produced plasma) has demonstrated in¹. This approach is based on application of the cylindrical plasma lens (PL) configuration for introducing in a volume of propagating along axis dense low temperature plasma flow radially convergent energetic electron beam produced by ion-electron secondary emission from electrodes of plasma optical tool. Here we present the results of the further development an experimental study of new effective schemes eliminating microdroplets from plasma flow of the pulsed vacuum arc discharge (MEVVA). The main element of this scheme is a compact axially symmetric plasma-optic device based on the use of permanent magnets to establish the magnetic field. Actually the plasma lens is a well-explored tool for focusing high-current, large area, energetic, heavy ion beams as well as electron beams from gridded plasma sources².