Initiation of Arcing at a Plasma-Wall Contact

Conditions for the initiation of arcing in a plasma-wall contact were studied experimentally. Arcing could only be initiated by applying a bias voltage producing a net ion current to the wall. Results obtained show that crucial parameters for the initiation of arcing are the wall material, surface c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE transactions on plasma science Vol. 14; no. 5; pp. 603 - 608
Main Authors Ehrich, H., Karlau, J., Muller, K. G.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, NY IEEE 01.10.1986
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
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Summary:Conditions for the initiation of arcing in a plasma-wall contact were studied experimentally. Arcing could only be initiated by applying a bias voltage producing a net ion current to the wall. Results obtained show that crucial parameters for the initiation of arcing are the wall material, surface contaminations, the voltage across the plasma-wall sheath, and the total current to the wall. The current density was found to have no significant influence on arcing. For fixed surface conditions, arcing can be described by initiation characteristics. Also characteristics of the burning arc were determined 5 μs after initiation. The arc operates with voltages and currents lying between the initiation characteristic and the burning characteristic. This result can be interpreted in terms of a nonstationary mechanism of the cathode spot.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0093-3813
1939-9375
DOI:10.1109/TPS.1986.4316603