The negative hydrogen ion source based on reflecting discharge with metal-hydride cathode

Summary form only given, as follows. The characteristics of a plasma source of negative hydrogen ions, using the mechanisms of dissociative attachment low-energy electrons to molecules of the worker gas, was studied. Cathodes of plasma producer block was made of metal-hydride (Zr-V-Fe)H/sub x/. The idea of the use of metal-hydride cathodes was based on the results of Shmal´ko et al. (1995). They showed that the hydrogen molecules, desorbed from metal-hydride surface, were in vibrationally excited states and, as a result, the cross section of dissociative attachment was increased. We have found that the use of a metal-hydride cathode in a plasma source of ions allowed an increase in the currency and gas effectiveness in combination with the simplicity and compactness of the device construction.