20th Int. Symp.

on High-Current Electronics – Tomsk – 2018

Generation of Plasma by Vacuum Arc with

Сopper-Сhromium Cathode
Efim Oks
Valeria Frolova Alexey Nikolaev
Institute of High Current Electronics
Institute of High Current Electronics Institute of High Current Electronics
SB RAS
SB RAS SB RAS
2/3 Academichesky Ave., 634055,
2/3 Academichesky Ave., 634055, 2/3 Academichesky Ave., 634055,
Tomsk, Russia
Tomsk, Russia Tomsk, Russia
Tomsk State University of Control System
Tomsk State University of Control System nik@opee.hcei.tsc.ru
and Radioelectronics
and Radioelectronics
Georgy Yushkov 40 Lenin Ave., 634050, Tomsk, Russia
40 Lenin Ave., 634050, Tomsk, Russia
Institute of High Current Electronics oks@opee.hcei.tsc.ru
Frolova_Valeria_90@mail.ru
SB RAS
2/3 Academichesky Ave., 634055,
Tomsk, Russia
gyushkov@mail.ru

Abstract—Vacuum arcs are used in various electrophysical analyze the mass-charge state of vacuum arc plasmas produced
devices. In vacuum circuit breakers, arcs are undesirable but with copper–chromium cathodes under the conditions typical
occur frequently as contacts get open, producing an electrode- of vacuum circuit breakers.
eroding plasma. The parameters of an arc plasma formed in the
electrode gap of a vacuum circuit breaker are largely responsible
for its stability and long-term operation, and to lengthen the life II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
time of such devices, their electrodes are made of copper– The vacuum arc plasma produced in vacuum circuit
chromium composites. Here we study the mass-charge state of breakers with copper–chromium electrodes was studied using
arc plasmas produced with copper–chromium electrodes under the discharge system of an ion source [7]. During the operation
the conditions typical of vacuum circuit breakers. of a vacuum arc, the plasma generated in cathode spots filled
the anode cavity, and the ions extracted from its emission
Keywords—vacuum arc, plasma, vacuum circuit breakers, surface formed a wide-aperture ion beam. The mass-charge
copper–chromium electrode state of the ion beam was measured with a time-of-flight
spectrometer [8], and the measurement data were used to assess
I. INTRODUCTION the composition of the vacuum arc plasma. Despite the seeming
Vacuum arcs with cathode spots or cathodic arcs have been complexity of such a method, it has been applied to advantage
studied for more than 100 years [1]. This type of discharge is of
much research interest due to its wide use in electrophysical
and ion plasma devices like cathodic arc deposition systems
[3], and ion sources [4], and also because cathodic arcs are an
undesirable but frequent event limiting the life time of vacuum
circuit breakers [2]. Despite the so long research, one cannot
say with confidence what main physical mechanisms drive the
operation of vacuum arc cathode spots. By now, several
hypotheses explain the phenomenon, and most recognized
among them is the ecton mechanism [5]. Studying cathodic
arcs is of both fundamental and applied importance, and in
particular, it is the way to unambiguously understand the
generation of vacuum arc plasmas and to further improve the
devices in which such discharges occur.
As a rule, the electrodes of vacuum circuit breakers are
made of composite materials and mostly based on copper and
chromium. Despite the rather long history of designing,
investigating, and using high-current vacuum circuit breakers
[6], there is still no consensus on the physical processes that
determine the relationship between the characteristics of Fig. 1. Discharge system for research in arc plasma produced in vacuum
composite cathodes and plasma and on how these circuit breakers.
characteristics influence the efficiency of the devices. Here we

The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant #18-
19-00069).

978-1-5386-6891-7/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 214

 of the discharge. After about 150 µs of its operation, all
dependences reach saturation and the plasma composition
remains almost unchanged.
Because the plasma composition became stabilized after
about 150 µs, its dependences on the discharge current were
measured at 150 µs. Figure 4 shows the plasma composition
versus the average current density to the cathode. It should be
noted that the range of current densities corresponds to that in a
real vacuum circuit breaker with contacts of diameter 70 mm.
The dependences in Fig. 4 suggest that increasing the arc
current density five times changes the plasma composition by a
mere few percent: the fraction of Cu2+ and Cr2+ ions decreases
and that of Cu3+ and Cr3+ grows.
(a) (b)
Fig. 2. Waveforms of the discharge current and ion current to the central B. Plasma mass-charge state with magnetic field
Faraday cup for CuCr-70/30 electrodes (a), arc current 200 A/div, beam
current 2 mA/div, time scale 50 µs/div, and mass-charge spectrum of plasma Figure 5 shows the plasma composition versus the magnetic
for CuCr-70/30 (b). field. It is seen that increasing the magnetic field decreases the
in analyzing the properties of plasmas [9, 10], including arc
plasmas with composite cathodes [11, 12].
Figure 1 shows the discharge system for research in the arc
plasma produced in vacuum circuit breakers. The cathode and
the anode were made of copper–chromium, had a diameter of
6.3 mm, and were spaced by 4 mm. In the gap between them,
an arc was initiated by a ceramic flashover upon applying a
high-voltage pulse (up to 14 kV, 10 µs) between the cathode
and a trigger electrode. In the anode, there were seven holes of
diameter 1.5 mm through which the discharge plasma
penetrated into the anode cavity of the source. From the
emission surface of the plasma, which was limited by a
perforated emission electrode, ions were extracted to form an
accelerated (30 kV) ion beam of diameter 10 cm for its further
time-of-flight analysis. For the cathode and anode materials we
used two composites with a copper–chromium ratio of 50/50 %
and 70/30 % (hereinafter CuCr-50/50 and CuCr-70/30,
respectively). The amplitude of a pulsed magnetic field in the (a)
discharge gap was up to 1.2 T. The field was produced by a
solenoid of inner diameter 30 mm whose frame was placed at
floating potential with respect to the other electrodes and was
simulative of the protective shield by which the electrodes of a
vacuum circuit breaker are normally surrounded.
Figure 2 shows typical waveforms of the discharge current,
ion current to the central Faraday cup, and mass-charge
spectrum of the plasma from which its composition was
judged. The relative percentage of each ion type in the plasma
was determined from the area of each peak integrated with
respect to time.

III. RESULTS

A. Plasma mass-charge state with no magnetic field

Figure 3 shows the plasma composition versus the time
after arc ignition with no magnetic field for CuCr-50/50 and
CuCr-70/30. It is seen that the plasma contains Cu ions of (b)
charge 1+ to 3+ and chromium ions of charge 1+ to 4+ and that
Cr4+ ions are observed only early in the pulse while Cu4+ ions Fig. 3. Plasma composition vs time after arc ignition for CuCr-50/50 (a) and
are not found at all. The dependences also suggest that the CuCr-70/30 (b). Arc current 780 A, current density 2.5 kA/cm2, residual
fraction of higher charge state ions is larger at the initial stage pressure 1 µTorr.

215
 (a)
(b)
Fig. 4. Plasma composition vs discharge current density at 150 µs after arc
ignition for CuCr-50/50 (a) and CuCr-70/30 (b). Residual pressure 1 µTorr.
amount of copper and chromium ions of charge 1+ and 2+ and
increases the amount of ions of charge 3+. Beginning with
about 0.2 T, the plasma reveals Cu4+ and Cr4+ ions and even a
small fraction of Cr5+ ions. As the magnetic field is increased to
more than 0.8 T, all dependences reach saturation and the
plasma composition becomes almost unchanged.
For both electrode materials, the time dependences of the
plasma composition with a magnetic field are the same as those
with no magnetic field (Fig. 3), except that the fraction of
highly charged ions is higher. After about 150 µs, all
dependences reach saturation and the plasma composition
becomes almost unchanged.
IV. DISCUSSION
The decrease in the fraction of multiply charged ions and in
the mean ion charge state with time (Fig. 3), which was
observed in the vacuum arc plasma with copper–chromium
216
(a)
(b)
Fig. 5. Plasma composition vs magnetic field at 200 µs after arc ignition for
CuCr-50/50 (a) and CuCr-70/30 (b). Residual pressure 1 µTorr.
cathodes, is a typical effect in pulsed arc discharges. Early in
the operation of an arc, the discharge voltage is high and so is
the plasma temperature and the ionization rate. After 150 µs of
its operation, the voltage across the gap drops to about 25 V,
and the electron temperature in the plasma decreases to typical
quasi-steady values such that all dependences reach saturation
and the plasma composition becomes almost unchanged.
For both electrode materials, the mean charge states of
copper and chromium ions and their charge state distributions
are close: the mean charge states of copper and chromium ions
for CuCr-50/50 are 1.7+ and 1.82+, respectively, and those for
CuCr-70/30 are 1.69+ and 1.8+, respectively. Thus, changing
the fractions of copper and chromium in the cathode material
by 20 % changes the mean charge state of their ions by about
1 %. This suggests that the ion charge state distribution in the
composite cathodes is determined mainly by the distribution of
multiple ionization potentials of each metal component rather

Fig. 6. Fractions of Cu and Cr ions in plasma (symbols) vs discharge current
density at 200 µs after arc ignition for CuCr-50/50 and CuCr-70/30 cathodes
with Cu and Cr fractions in them indicated by lines.
than by the ratio of two metals in a cathode. As for the question
of why Cr4+ ions are observed early in the arc current pulse and
Cu4+ ions are not, the answer is simple: because the ionization
potential of Cr4+ ions is 54.4 eV and that of Cu4+ ions is
75.5 eV, and the electron temperature in the plasma early in the
discharge pulse is sufficient for the former and insufficient for
the latter ions to appear in the plasma. By estimates, the plasma
temperature at the initial discharge stage is 5 eV, and after
about 150 µs, it decreases to a quasi-steady value of 3.5 eV.
The established plasma temperature is determined by the
balance of particles in the plasma and by the balance of power
deposited in the discharge.
When a magnetic field is imposed, it compresses the plasma
jet from cathode spots and increases the vacuum arc voltage but
it does not change the overall time dependence of the plasma
mass-charge state. With and with no magnetic field, the
discharge voltage decreases to its quasi-steady value in about
the same time, and the mean charge states of Cu ions for two
cathode materials are almost equal. Early in the arc pulse in
both cases, the plasma contains Cr5+ ions and does not contain
Cu5+ ions whose ionization potentials are 73.9 eV and
102.7 eV, respectively
Increasing the discharge current density five times changes
the plasma composition by a few percent (Fig. 4) through
decreasing the amount of Cu2+ and Cr2+ ions and increasing the
amount of ions of charge 3+. Such a change is typical for
vacuum arcs when switching to higher current modes and is
associated with a relatively small increase in plasma
temperature with increasing discharge voltage, which has an
ascending current–voltage characteristic. At the same time, this
experimental fact evidences once again that the ionization in
vacuum arc plasmas, including plasmas with composite
cathodes, occur in cathode spots as unit cells and are sustained
by ectons as elementary explosive emission events. Increasing
the vacuum arc current increases its density at the cathode up to
3 kA/cm2, but this value is at least ten thousand times smaller
than the current density in a cathode spot, which is of order of
100 MA/cm2. Therefore, the average current density at the
217
cathode is negligible compared to the current density in a
cathode spot, and increasing the current density at the cathode
increases the number of cathode spots but does not affect the
ionization in each of them.
When the discharge gap is placed in a magnetic field
(Fig. 5), the fraction of highly charged ions grows and so does
the mean ion charge state in the arc plasma, as it happens with
single-element cathodes. This is likely because the magnetic
field compresses the plasma jet and increases the discharge
voltage and the electron temperature, resulting in additional
ionization. It should be noted that the magnetic field effect, in
this case, is dual [13]: the magnetic field not only increases the
electron temperature but it also expands the region of freezing
– a dense plasma region near a vacuum arc cathode spot in
which ionization occurs.
The magnetic field at which the ion charge states reach
saturation approximates those at which such saturation is
observed for copper and chromium. The mean charge state of
copper and chromium ions determined from the dependences in
Fig. 5 increases 1.6 times, which correlates with its increase by
a factor of 1.5 and 1.7 for a copper and a chromium cathode,
respectively.
From the dependences obtained, we can determine the ion
fraction of each element in the arc plasma. Figure 6 shows the
fractions of copper and chromium ions in the vacuum arc
plasma (symbols) and their fractions in the CuCr-50/50 and
CuCr-70/30 cathodes (lines). The dependences in Fig. 6
suggest that the fractions of copper and chromium ions in the
arc plasma correspond to the atomic fractions of these elements
in the cathodes. Thus, if both electrodes of a circuit breaker are
made of the same composite materials, their surface
composition will be unaffected by the cathode material transfer
during the operation of cathode spots, and if their materials are
different, the anode will be eventually covered with a film
identical in composition to the cathode material.
V. CONCLUSION
Thus, our research in the mass-charge state of arc plasmas
produced in vacuum circuit breakers with copper-chromium
cathodes suggests the following. Both with and with no
external magnetic field in the discharge gap, the plasma
composition becomes quasi-steady within about 150 µs after
arc ignition. Increasing the magnetic field increases the charge
state of copper and chromium ions in the composite cathodes
like in single-element cathodes, and as the magnetic field is
increased to more than 0.8 T, the increase in the charge state
slows down. The charge state of the vacuum arc plasma
produced with such composite cathodes is determined by the
discharge parameters and by the distribution of multiple
ionization potentials of copper and chromium contained in the
cathodes. Increasing the discharge current and hence the
current density at the electrodes little affects the plasma mass-
charge state, and the ion fraction of each component in the
plasma is equal to its atomic fraction in the cathode material.
These features indicate that both cathode components are
ionized in the same dense plasma region of a vacuum arc
cathode spot.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The work was supported by the Russian Science
Foundation (grant No. 18-19-00069). The authors are thankful
to Dr. Irina Poluyanova from Tavrida Electric Company for
providing the electrode materials used in commercial vacuum
circuit breakers and for expressing interest in the research.
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