A plasma model for a new mode of a hot refractory anode vacuum are configur
ation is presented. The are is sustained between a copper cathode and a hot
graphite anode separated by a 1 cm gap. The cathode operates in the multic
athode spot regime, while the hot graphite anode back-evaporates the materi
al flux arriving from the cathode. The interelectrode plasma expands radial
ly from the gap.
A system of equations for the heat flux from the plasma to the anode and fo
r the anode heating is proposed. The anode heat flux is obtained by solving
a system of equations for plasma energy balance, plasma mass conservation
and current continuity in the interelectrode gap.
Plasma electron temperature, plasma density, anode drop potential and anode
temperature are calculated Good agreement is found between the calculated
and measured anode temperature and plasma parameters. Thus, at steady state
the calculated and measured effective anode voltage is about 6 V and the e
lectron temperature is about 1 eV.