Experimental study of the effect of nitrogen on titanium-arc cathode erosion

Author

Kim, George E. ; Meunier, Jean-Luc ; Ajersch, Frank

Author_Institution

Dept. of Chem. Eng., McGill Univ., Montreal, Que., Canada

Volume

23

Issue

6

fYear

1995

fDate

12/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1001

Lastpage

1005

Abstract

Experimental data on the dependence of titanium erosion rate on cathode temperature, Ar, and N₂ pressure from vacuum to 1 torr and arc motion are presented. Erosion rate is found to decrease with conditions that promote cathode poisoning/contamination. Higher cathode temperatures result in enhanced nitriding (poisoning), leading to a reduced erosion rate. A critical nitrogen pressure (0.001 torr) exists where a sharp drop in erosion is measured. Steered arcs show lower erosion rate values of 38 and 15 μg/C for argon and nitrogen, when compared to random arc values of 45 and 35 μg/C. Erosion rate studies on TiN-coated cathodes show a low value of around 22 μg/C

Keywords

arcs (electric); cathodes; plasma interactions; temperature; titanium; vacuum arcs; wear; 0 to 1 torr; Ar; N₂; Ti; Ti erosion rate; Ti-arc cathode erosion; arc motion; cathode poisoning/contamination; cathode temperature; nitriding; steered arcs; Argon; Cathodes; Contamination; Lead; Nitrogen; Pollution measurement; Pressure measurement; Temperature dependence; Titanium; Vacuum arcs;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.476489

Filename

476489