ION ENERGY AND PLASMA CHARACTERIZATION IN A SILICON FILTERED CATHODICVACUUM-ARC

The plasma generated by a silicon filtered cathodic vacuum are has bee n investigated using a Faraday cup and Langmuir probes. Ion energy dis tributions for are currents ranging from 30 to 80 A were measured. Mea n ion energies were found to range from 8 to 18 eV. The ion saturation current density varied from 0.1 to 1 mA/cm(2) depending on both the a re and filter coil currents, The energy distributions were fitted by a sum of Gaussians spaced according to the gas dynamic model for ion ac celeration at the cathode spot. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics .