IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO.
5, OCTOBER 2003
Structure and Time Behavior of
Vacuum Arc Cathode Spots
Sergey A. Barengolts, Gennady A. Mesyats, and Dmitry Leonidovich Shmelev
Abstract—This paper reviews the state-of-the-art study of the
physical processes in the cathode spot of a vacuum arc. The most
important experimental data are explained in terms of the ecton
model of a cathode spot. The finite lifetime of an ecton is respon-
sible for the cyclic character of the processes occurring in a cathode
spot. It has been shown that the arc plasma is generated by mi-
croexplosions occurring at the cathode surface heated by the Joule
mechanism due to the high–explosive emission current density. Up
to kiloampere currents, the charge state of the arc plasma and
directed velocities of the ions are governed by the operation of a
cathode spot cell—an ecton.
Index Terms—Cathode spot, ecton, explosive electron emission,
vacuum arc.
I. INTRODUCTION
A VACUUM arc with cold cathode is characterized by the
following properties [1]–[4]:
1) low operating voltage (of the order of the ionization po-
tential of the cathode material);
2) high-current density at the cathode surface;
3) high-plasma density in the near-cathode region;
4) existence of a threshold current for discharge operation.
Numerous experiments suggest that the properties of a vacuum
arc are entirely determined by processes occurring in a small
bright region at the cathode that carries the current between the
cathode and electrode gap. This region is called a cathode spot
and includes the active part of the cathode surface heated to tem-
peratures far above the melting point, as well as the near-cathode
plasma resulting from the evaporation of the cathode material
from the active region. The study of the processes accompa-
nying the operation of an electrical discharge in vacuum has
an almost age-old history. Despite the considerable progress
achieved in investigating some characteristics of cathode spots,
it has to be admitted that there is no generally accepted model
of a vacuum arc cathode spot. This is primarily due to problems
involved in diagnosing cathode spots, related to the extremely
small time and space scales of the cathode spot phenomena and
the fast, chaotic motion of spots over the cathode surface.
This paper reviews the state-of-the-art of cathode spot phe-
nomena in vacuum arcs. The principal experimental data are
interpreted based on the ecton model of a cathode spot. Ac-
cording to this model, a cathode spot consists of individual cells
by which the attachment of the discharge current at the cathode
Manuscript received September 16, 2002; revised May 16, 2003. This work
was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research under Grants
02-02-17002 and 02-02-17509.
The authors are with the Institute of Electrophysics, Russian Academy of
Sciences, Ekaterinburg 620016, Russia (e-mail: sb@nsc.gpi.ru).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2003.818449
0093-3813/03$17.00 © 2003 IEEE
809
and generation of a conducting medium in the vacuum gap are
realized. In terms of the ecton model, a spot cell is an explosive
emission center, which emits a portion of electrons, called an
ecton. The lifetime of an ecton ranges from a few to some tens
of nanoseconds; the ecton current lies in the range from a few
amperes to some tenths of an ampere, depending on the cathode
material. Over a long period, the decisive role of explosive emis-
sion processes in the operation of a vacuum arc discharge was
subjected to question. However, data of recent studies provide
support for this view. Theoretically, this is first the ecton model
of the cathode spot of a vacuum discharge [3] that allows a uni-
fied description of the processes occurring in spark and arc dis-
charges in vacuum. The main concepts embodied in this model
have further been confirmed by measurements of the energy
of the directed motion of the arc plasma ions under the condi-
tions of high vacuum [5] and by space and time resolved exam-
inations of the structure of vacuum arc cathode spots [6]. The
gas-dynamic character of the acceleration of ions in an arc dis-
charge and existence of cathode spot cells with a lifetime of tens
of nanoseconds, established in these studies, have made it pos-
sible to reject the main arguments advanced against the explo-
sive emission character of the vacuum arc phenomena.
II. STATE-OF-THE-ART EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE
PROCESSES IN CATHODE SPOTS
A. Structure of Cathode Spot
An important property of a cathode spot—its intrinsic struc-
ture—shows up in the existence of individual cells or fragments
in the spot. The substructure of a cathode spot was detected
by Kesaev [1], who investigated erosion traces left by arcs on
thin-film cathodes. According to his data, each cathode spot
cell carries a current twice the arc threshold current . The
threshold current of an arc discharge is the minimum current at
which the discharge is self-sustained. The magnitude of this cur-
rent is a few amperes or several tenths of an ampere, depending
on the cathode material [1], [3]. The existence of cells showed
up in the presence of microcraters at the place of residence of a
spot. As can be seen from the micrographs in Fig. 1, the trace of
a cathode spot consisted of a great number of individual craters
of micrometer size, whose appearance was the result of the op-
eration of individual cells of the cathode spot. In the case of
cathode spot of the first type, microcraters were divided by a
large distances and caused by evaporation of nonmetallic im-
purities on the cathode spot surface. Microcraters of the second
type cathode spot were overlapping or touched one another. A
cathode spot of such a type appeared on a cleaned surface. Over
a long period, the cell structure was the subject of question. It is
810 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2003

Fig. 1. Arc trace of cathode spot of (a) first type and (b) second type. (a) Gold Fig. 2. Waveforms of arc voltage, current, and light intensity for tungsten
cathode; current 5 A. (b) Tungsten cathode; current 23 A; burning time 1.3. s cathode [8].
[7].

proposed that this is influenced by properties of the cathode spot

in initial arc burning or the properties of thin-film cathodes. Di-
rect evidence for the existence of cathode spot cells with a life-
time on the nanosecond scale has been obtained by Jüttner [6].
He used electron-optical image converters and laser-absorption
techniques to examine the structure of cathode spots. An inves-
tigation of the fluctuating light flux emitted by a cathode spot
showed the existence of cathode spot cells with currents 10 A
and lifetimes of 10–20 ns.

B. Cyclic Processes in a Cathode Spot

It is preferable to study the physical processes in an individual
cell when the arc current is close to the threshold current and
only a few spot cells are functioning. The results of these re-
cent investigations [8] are presented in Fig. 2. As seen in these
plots, the abrupt decrease in current coincides in time with the
abrupt rise in voltage. Variations in current and voltage are ac-
companied by oscillations in intensity of the cathode spot lumi-
nescence. To precisely synchronize these oscillations with the
current and voltage variations is a very complicated technical
problem. Nevertheless, it is evident that the bursts in lumines-
cence occur when the arc current abruptly decreases. The de-
crease in current implies the death of a spot cell, and the increase
in voltage leads to the appearance of a new cell. The average
lifetime of a cell, estimated from the current, voltage, and spot
luminosity, is 20–30 ns.
The dominant role of the increase in arc operation voltage
in the initiation of new spot cells was confirmed by the exper-
imental data [9] in Fig. 3. In this figure, the arrow shows the
moment and place of cathode spot death followed by discharge
reignition.
Fig. 3. Trace of 2-A arc on tungsten and corresponding waveforms of arc
voltage (50 V/div) [9].
The pulsing character of the potential bursts and related cyclic
processes in a cathode spot are manifestations of the intrinsic in-
stability of the discharge. An increase in potential suggests that
the discharge periodically experiences crises and its self-sus-
taining calls for a higher potential for a short time. An increase
in potential in the near-cathode region is accompanied by an in-
crease in ion current to the cathode. The dominant role of the ion
current onto the cathode in the initiation of new cathode spots
has been demonstrated convincingly in experiment [10], where
switching of an arc from one electrode to another was investi-
gated for gaps of spacing 7 m.
BARENGOLTS et al.: STRUCTURE AND TIME BEHAVIOR OF VACUUM ARC CATHODE SPOTS
The intrinsic instability of an arc discharge shows up most
dramatically in its self-extinction. For a given current, the
number of arcs operating at a time is given by the law of
probability [1]
(1)
where is the total number of arcs observed, and is the
average arc operation time.
C. Arc Plasma Parameters
The most important function of cathode spots, along with the
transfer of current, is to ensure prerequisites for the generation
of conducting matter in vacuum. Tanberg [11] was first to dis-
cover fast-particle flows originating from the cathode spot re-
gion of a vacuum arc. It was supposed that such a flow is a jet of
metal vapor whose particle velocities for a copper cathode are
about 1.6 10 cm s. Plyutto et al. [12] established that this was
not a vapor, but a plasma flow whose degree of ionization for
metals with a relatively high boiling temperature (Cu, Ag, and
Mg) was 50%–100%. The plasma contained doubly and triply
charged ions, and the plasma jet velocity was of the order of
10 cm s. The ion energies ranged from zero to 50–70 eV. The
presence of high-energy ions in plasma jets led the authors of
[12] to the supposition that there was a potential hump in the
region of the cathode spot plasma. According to this supposi-
tion, the energy of ions should be directly proportional to their
charge, whereas in the case of a gradual increase in potential,
and, hence, the gas-dynamic mechanism of the acceleration of
ions, ions of different charge should have the same energy. An
attempt to refine the results of the experiment [12] was made by
Davis and Miller [13]. They investigated the charge state and
energy distribution of the ions of arc plasmas for nine cathode
materials. The data they obtained showed a certain dependence
of the energy of ions from their charge multiplicity; however,
this dependence was substantially weaker than predicted by the
potential hump model. Considerable progress in the study of the
parameters of arc plasma ions has been attained in recent years.
This is due to creation of vacuum-arc ion sources used to ob-
tain charge state distributions of ions for almost all conducting
materials [14]. These investigations have shown that the charge
constitution of the vacuum arc plasma remains unchanged as the
arc current is increased from 50 to 500 A. An important outcome
from this work is the experimentally established fact that ions
of different charge have equal velocities [5], and this is evidence
for a gas-dynamic mechanism for the acceleration of ions.
The ions emitted by a cathode spot constitute a current
flowing in the direction opposite to the arc current since they
move predominantly in the direction from cathode to anode.
Important measurements in this respect were performed by
Kimblin [15]. He established that the ion current collected onto
a cylindrical screen reaches a limiting value which is indepen-
dent of geometric parameters, is approximately proportional
to the total arc current, and weakly depends on the cathode
material. The coefficient of proportionality between the ion
current and the total arc current is about 0.1.
The ion current flow from a cathode results in the loss of
cathode mass in the form of ions. The measure of the ion ero-
811
sion is the erosion rate , the ratio of the mass removed in the
form of ions to the charge passed through the cathode, .
The experimental data on cathode erosion are highly contro-
versial since during a discharge, along with ion erosion, there
is also cathode material removal in the form of macroparticles,
droplets, and neutral vapor. Conventional methods used for ero-
sion measurements, such as weighing and estimating the erosion
rate by varying parameters of erosion structures, are highly sen-
sitive to the arc current, discharge operation time, and cathode
geometry. Daalder [16] performed an experiment with copper
electrodes ranging from a diameter between 25 and 10 mm. The
current varied in the range 33–200 A. It turned out that as de-
creased to 0.1 C, various relations for the erosion rate, obtained
at various currents, yielded the same value, 40 g C, which
is just the ion erosion rate. The ion erosion rate can also be de-
termined from measurements of the average ion charge with the
use of the following obvious formula [16]:
(2)
where is the charge transferred from the cathode by ions per
unit time, is the average charge of the arc plasma ions, and
is the ion mass.
Parameters of the plasma in the cathode spot region are dis-
tributed highly nonuniformly. According to the data of Vogel
[17], in the immediate vicinity of a copper cathode ( 1 m),
the plasma density was 10 cm . Anders et al. [18], using
laser diagnostics, have shown that the plasma density at a dis-
tance of m from the spot on a copper cathode is 3–6
10 cm . These results testify to the presence of a nonideal
plasma in the zone of operation of the cathode spot. The ion den-
sity decreases with distance from the cathode as . Puchkarev
[19], using probe diagnostics, established that at distances
0.1 mm from the spot of a vacuum arc, the electron temperature
is 4.6 0.5 eV and 5.8 0.5 eV for Cu and W cathodes, respec-
tively. Far away from the cathode, this temperature decreases to
1–2 eV [4].
D. Current Density
The key characteristic in determining the mechanism for the
energy release in a cathode spot is the current density at the site
of residence of the spot. At current densities above 10 A cm ,
Joule heating prevails [3], while at lower current densities, a
surface energy source should be involved due to the energy of
ions flux onto cathode [4]. Experimental estimates of the cur-
rent density in vacuum arc cathode spots varied as years went
by. As experimental techniques offering higher and higher time
and space resolution were developed, the measured current den-
sity tended to increase from 10 A cm in the 20 s to 10 A cm
at present. This wide spread in measurements suggests, on one
hand, drawbacks of the techniques used for measuring current
density and, on the other hand, the uncertainty of the notion of
the current density of a cathode spot. However, since a cathode
spot is structured, the current density in its individual cell has
actual physical meaning. Convincing data confirm that the av-
erage current density in the cathode spot of a vacuum arc at the
final stage of its operation is 10 –10 A cm , as reported by
812
Daalder [20], Vogel and Jüttner [21], Sanger and Secker [22],
Mesyats and Proskurovsky [23], and other experimenters.
E. Summary
Analysis of state-of-the-art of the studies on the cathode spot
of a vacuum arc allows the following conclusions:
1) cathode spot consists of individual cells;
2) current through a cell is a few amperes or some tenth
of an ampere and the lifetime of a cell is some tens of
nanoseconds;
3) finite lifetime of a cathode spot is responsible for the non-
stationary, cyclic character of the processes occurring in
the spot;
4) ion erosion rate and the charge state and velocity of the
ions are independent of the arc current (until one kilo-
ampere), suggesting that these parameters are associated
with operation of an individual cell of the spot.
III. ECTON MODEL OF CATHODE SPOTS
A. Explosive Electron Emission and Vacuum Arc
Concepts of the ecton model of the cathode spot of a vacuum
arc, based on explosive emission processes, are formulated
elsewhere [3]. According to this model, the cathode spot
of a vacuum arc consists of individual explosive emission
centers, each emitting a bunch of electrons, which are called
ectons. The phenomenon of explosive electron emission was
discovered in 1966 by Mesyats et al. at the investigation of
spark stage of vacuum discharge. We list parameters of the
cathode spot for vacuum sparks [24]: the threshold current is a
few amperes, the cathode fall potential is several tens of volts,
the plasma expansion velocity is 10 cm s, the erosion rate
is 10 –10 g C, the velocity of flight of the liquid-metal
fraction is 10 cm s, the number of droplets is 10 C ,
the plasma density in the spot zone is 10 cm , the
microcrater radii are 10 cm, the current density in the spot
is 10 A cm , and the cycle duration is 10 ns. Comparing
parameters of the cathode processes in vacuum arcs [1]–[4]
and sparks allows the conclusion that in both cases, we deal
with the same phenomenon; explosive electron emission. The
principal source of the energy released in a cathode spot is
Joule heating due to the high-current density in the operation
zone of the spot.
B. Parameters of Ecton Processes
An ecton is initiated upon interaction of a liquid-metal jet
ejected from the cathode spot region with the cathode plasma.
Behind the phenomenon of explosive electron emission, as for
the electrical explosion of conductors, the main source of energy
is Joule heating. Based on analogy with electrically exploded
conductors, the current density at the initiation of an ecton can
be estimated from the formula for specific action
(3)
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2003
where is the explosion delay time. As for most of the metals,
10 A s cm [3], for 10 s the current density will
be of the order of 10 A cm . The high current density results
in rapid heating of a cathode microvolume and its explosion,
accompanied by explosive electron emission. As the explosion
process progresses, the emission zone increases in size, the cur-
rent density decreases, and heat removal by conduction and en-
ergy removal due to ejection of plasma and heated liquid metal
become substantial. Therefore, the explosive emission current
ceases producing a short-living bunch of electrons-an ecton.
The ecton lifetime can be estimated by the formula [3]
(4)
where is the thermal diffusivity of the cathode material, and
is the ecton current. When writing formula (4), it was supposed
that an ecton is initiated by explosion of a liquid-metal point of
conical geometry with a small cone angle . The mass lost by
the cathode during the time is given by
(5)
where is the density of the cathode material. The total electron
charge passed by an ecton during its operation time is
(6)
Since an arc discharge is self-sustained due to the explosion of
liquid-metal irregularities, one should use for , , and in
(3)–(6) their values corresponding to the liquid state.
A consequence of the finite lifetime of an ecton is the cyclic
nature of the processes occurring in the cathode spot. A cycle
consists of two stages: the first stage lasts the time during
which the ecton is operative and the second stage of shorter
duration during which a new ecton is initiated by the ion
current from the cathode plasma. Estimation of the cycle dura-
tion from the data of experiments on investigating the voltage,
current, brightness oscillations at near-threshold arc currents
gives 20–30 ns for copper and tungsten cathodes [3],
[8], and the ionic fraction of the cycle duration estimated as
.
Another important property of a cathode spot is the intrinsic
structure of a cathode spot, which shows up in the existence of
individual cells or fragments of the spot. According to the data
of Kesaev [1], each cathode-spot cell carries a current equal to
twice the arc threshold current .
The mass lost by a cathode during the time is determined
by(5). During the time the main ion current flows to the
cathode. The magnitude of this current, according to the data
given in [25], is up to about 0.1 of the arc current. Therefore,
the total mass lost by the cathode during a cycle is 1–2 .
Thus, for the ion erosion rate, in view of (5) and (6), we can
write
(7)
BARENGOLTS et al.: STRUCTURE AND TIME BEHAVIOR OF VACUUM ARC CATHODE SPOTS 813

TABLE I

Using (2) and (7), we determine the average charge of the
plasma ions produced as a result of the operation of an ecton
(8)
Taking into account that 0.1 for all materials [15], we
can state that and are independent of current and deter-
mined only by characteristics of the cathode material, which
agrees with the results of experiments [14], [16], [26]. Table I
lists the average values of charges and ion erosion rates obtained
by (7) and (8) for some metals for which the values of the spe-
cific action are known [3]. Values of the thermal coefficients for
these metals were taken from [27]. For all materials, by analogy
with W and Cu, was put equal to 0.2.
There is good agreement with experimental data, impressive
in view of the roughness of the experimental values of the
thermal characteristics of the materials under investigation.
The high-explosive emission current densities imply high-en-
ergy densities immediately in the condensed phase. From the
condition of conservation of total energy within particle body
[28], it follows that the velocity of motion of the forward layers
of plasma is related to the specific energy
(9)
a copper cathode is 150–200 A, in agreement with the experi-
mental data reported in [4].
The inherent instability of the operation of a vacuum arc un-
derlies the ecton model. The reasons for this instability are the
finite lifetime of an ecton and the related cyclic character of
the processes occurring in the cathode spot of a vacuum arc.
Based on the ecton model, we proposed the simplest statistical
model of spontaneous arc extinguishing [31]. The probability of
an ecton operating can be defined as
(11)
the probability that ectons of all ectons are operative at a
time is given by the expression
(12)
At the instant that an arc extinguishes, no one ecton is operative.
Hence, the probability of the arc operating at the time is
(13)
where is the probability of no ecton operating. The
smallness condition is fulfilled for 1. Correspondingly,
from the total number of arcs, are operative at the time

where is the sublimation energy, and is the adiabatic ex- (14)

ponent.
As the arc current increases, the cathode spot cells group to which corresponds to the empirically obtained relation (1),
become immediately close to each other and provide energeti- where
cally-profitable conditions for their regeneration. In such a col-
(15)
lectivized spot, the average current density, cathode surface tem-
perature, and cathode plasma density are greater than in a con-
is the average arc operation time.
ventional spot. On the assumption that Joule heating is the main
As seen in Fig. 4, the model is in very good agreement with
mechanism for the heat release in a cathode spot, we obtained an
the experimental data for a low-current vacuum arc.
expression for the lifetime of such a collectivized cathode spot
For an ac arc, self-extinction results in the chopping-current
[29]
phenomenon. The value of chopping current is related to the
ecton parameters as
(10)
(16)
A similar expression was obtained by Jüttner in his
study of the initial stage of the operation of a vacuum arc [30]. where is the peak current and is the frequency of the vari-
According to our estimates, the limiting current onto a spot for ation of the current.
814
Fig. 4. Average arc lifetime of the operation of a vacuum arc on W cathode
versus arc current. (1) Experiment [9]. (2) Statistical model [30].
The explanation other phenomena accompanying the vacuum
arc burning, such as the Tanberg effect, the value of threshold
current, velocity of droplets and so on, is based on a simple ecton
model found in monograph [3].
C. Modeling of Ecton Processes
The simple model of an operating ecton fails to describe the
variety of physical phenomena occurring in the cathode spots
of vacuum arcs and sparks. One can gain an understanding of
the parameters of the cathode plasma, cathode phenomena, and
their evolution only by way of numerical simulation. Obviously,
it is difficult to develop an adequate model of cathode spots be-
cause material in the zone of an operating spot may be in the
condensed, liquid, gaseous, or plasma state. The fact that, in ex-
plosive electron emission, energy is concentrated in the cathode
to high densities calls for conceptually new-hydrodynamic non-
stationary-models using equations of state that describe thermo-
dynamic properties of matter in the metal-to-plasma-state range.
The problem of the explosive-like expansion of the cathode
material, taking into account the continuous metal-to-plasma
transition, was solved rigorously by Shmelev and Litvinov [32].
Computations were performed for a copper cathode for the
current range 3–7 A. The dimensions and shape of the original
micropoints were taken from the consideration that they should
be microprotrusions formed during operation of the preceding
ecton. In general terms, the computations gave the following
pattern of the electrical explosion of a microprotrusion on a
cathode: Due to the high-current density, intense Joule heat
release results in rapid heating of the microprotrusion tip,
followed by an abrupt increase in pressure (reaching several
hundreds of kilobars within a short time). This pressure gen-
erates a destructive wave propagating toward the protrusion
base, whereas a fully ionized plasma with an initial electron
temperature of up to 10 eV and a velocity higher than cm s,
a plasma flare, expands in the opposite direction. As this takes
place, a layer of continuous metal-to-plasma transition is
formed throughout the region of the current passage from the
cathode to the electrode gap, where heat release predominantly
occurs.
The computations yield the following characteristics of the
plasma in the cathode spot zone. In the plasma phase, the tem-
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2003
Fig. 5. Plasma parameters distributed along a jet (two-dimensional simulation)
for a copper cathode [32].
perature difference between ions and electrons becomes sub-
stantial at densities below 3 cm . With the passage of
time, the electron temperature acquires a quasistationary pro-
file with a maximum of 5–6 eV at a distance of m from
the cathode, followed by a gradual decrease in temperature to
3– 4 eV at a distance of 8 m. The ion temperature reaches
3 eV in the region where the electron temperature is a maximum.
The ion erosion rate is estimated to be [(4)–(6)] 10 g C. Im-
mediately after the explosion, the average charge is 2.7–3, de-
creasing with time. The value of averaged over the cycle du-
ration is 1.63. The predicted ion velocities after the explosion
reach 2.1 10 cm s.
D. Processes in the Cathode Plasma
Results of the simulation [32] provide an idea of the plasma
expansion at the initial stage. Because of the technical difficul-
ties related to the highly nonuniform distributions of the plasma
parameters, the computational network was restricted to 8 m
distance from cathode. In this connection, further numerical
simulations of the processes in a plasma jet were performed by
solving a system of equations of two-dimensional two-tempera-
ture hydrodynamics [33]. The averaged plasma parameters ob-
tained in terms of the model described in [32] were used for
boundary conditions. Principal parameters of the arc plasma
predicted by the numerical simulation are presented in Fig. 5.
One can see a good agreement with experimental data on the
ion parameters, given elsewhere [5], [14], [26]. The average
charge of the plasma closely approached the values presented
in Table I. The ion velocity was somewhat greater than given in
[5] (1.28 10 cm s); however, in view of the fact that the ex-
perimental data widely varied with measurement techniques and
vacuum conditions, the agreement with experiment is quite sat-
isfactory. Note that the plasma potential and temperature also fit
experimental data [3], [4]. According to the computations, the
ions, under the action of the electron pressure gradient, acquire
directed velocities of 10 cm s within a distance of several
micrometers from the cathode.
At the base of a plasma jet, there is a high plasma-density
gradient; therefore, the processes occurring in this region can
be accurately described with the assumption that the plasma ex-
BARENGOLTS et al.: STRUCTURE AND TIME BEHAVIOR OF VACUUM ARC CATHODE SPOTS
pansion is spherically symmetric. With this assumption, the fol-
lowing analytic expressions have been derived for the principal
parameters of the plasma in the cathode spot region [33]:
1) for the electron temperature at -distance from the
cathode 10 m [see (17) at the top of the page];
2) for the ion velocity at
(18)
Equations (17) and (18) are in good agreement with experi-
mental data and with predictions of numerical simulations pre-
sented in Fig. 5. Thus, for a copper cathode, the electron tem-
perature reaches a maximum of about 4 eV at a distance of 1
m from the cathode; the ion velocity is 1.56 10 cm s, and
the plasma potential in the spherically symmetric case is 18 V.
IV. CONCLUSION
The idea of a cathode spot as an ensemble of simultaneously
operating ectons allows one to give a rather adequate description
of the physical phenomena in the cathode spot of a vacuum arc.
The finite lifetime of an ecton is responsible for the cyclic, non-
stationary character of the cathode spot phenomena. Parameters
of the cathode plasma are established as a result of the operation
of a single explosive emission center. An increase in arc current
is accompanied by a mere increase in number of ectons, and this
accounts for the weak dependence of the arc plasma parameters
on current.
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Sergey A. Barengolts was born in Semipalatinsk,
Kazakhstan, in 1964. He received the Cand. Sci.
degree in 1989 from High Current Electronics
Institute, Tomsk, Tomsk, Russia.
He is currently a Senior Researcher with the
Institute of Electrophysics and the Deputy Head of
the Laboratory of General Physics Institute Natural
Sciences Center, Russian Academy of Sciences,
Moscow, Russia. He has authored and coauthored
over 70 scientific articles. His research interests
include vacuum discharges and high-current field
emission.
816
Gennady A. Mesyats was born in Kemerovo,
Russia, in 1936. He received the Cand. Sci. and Dr.
Sci. degrees from the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute,
Tomsk, U.S.S.R. (now Russia), in 1961 and 1964,
respectively.
To perform scientific research in pulsed power, he
established the Institute of High Current Electronics,
Tomsk, in 1977 and the Institute of Electrophysics,
Sverdlovsk, Russia, in 1986, where he has been
the Director since 1986. He has authored and
co-authored over 500 scientific articles and 15
monographs. His research interests include electrical discharges in gas and
vacuum, pulsed power, and gas lasers, etc.
Prof. Mesyats is the Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is
a member of many international and Russian scientific institutions, including the
American Physical Society, the American Optical Society, and the International
Society for Optical Engineering.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2003
Dmitry Leonidovich Shmelev was born in
Kachkanar, Sverdlovsk, U.S.S.R. (now Russia), on
October 17, 1965. He received the M.S. degree in
physics from Ural State University, Ekaterinburg,
Russia, in 1990, and the Ph.D. degree from the
Institute of Electrophysics, Russian Academy of
Science, Ekaterinburg, in 1999.
Since 1990, he has been with the Institute of Elec-
trophysics, where he is currently a Senior Researcher.
His research interests include vacuum arcs, numerical
methods, and magnetohydrodynamic.