Investigation of Variation in Mass-Charge Composition of the Ion Flux From the Plasma of the Vacuum Arc Discharge on CuCr Cathode

With the help of Thomson spectrometer with automatic signal registration and analysis the dependence of mass-charge composition of the cathode material ion flow in the vacuum arc with the cathode made of CuCr on the discharge current value was studied. The microsecond arc was formed in a millimeter gap between CuCr cathode and copper anode under high vacuum conditions. The arc current was changed within the range from a few to tens of Ampere. An increase in the chromium ions percentage and a decrease in the copper ions percentage with the rise of the vacuum arc current value were detected.