Plasma Generation in a Pulsed Mode of a Non-Self-Sustained Arc Discharge with a Hybrid Hot-and-hollow Cathode

The results of investigation of pulsed burning modes of a non-self-sustained arc discharge with a combined hot-and-hollow cathode are presented. The principal discharge characteristics are measured at the currents up to 350 A and discharge burning voltages up to 200 V within the working pressure range 0.2–1 Pa. It is shown that an increase in the working pressure gives rise to an increase in the discharge current as a result of gas amplification, resulting from an improvement in the processes of fast electron energy utilization during gas ionization. The maximum resulting discharge current in a nitrogen atmosphere at a pressure of 0.8 Pa is found to be 550 A at the discharge burning voltage up to 200 V and the maximum pulsed power up to 80 kV. The concentration of plasma in the center of the ≈0.2 m3 chamber is found to be about 4·1017 m–3 at the density of the ion current from plasma approximately 6.5 mA/cm2 and the discharge pulsed power 18 kW.