Particle flux characteristics of a compact high-field cascaded arc plasma device

A new compact cascaded arc device for plasma-wall interaction study is developed at the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. A magnetic field up to 0.8 T is achieved to confine plasmas in a 1.2 m long and 0.1 m diameter vacuum chamber. Gas fluid type analysis in this compact vacuum system was done under high particle flux condition. The gas pressure obtained by calculation was consistent with the measurement result. Continuous argon plasma discharge with ion flux of ∼0.5×1024 m-2 s-1 is successfully sustained for more than 1 h. The effects of magnetic field configuration, gas flow rate, and discharge arc current on the ion flux to target were studied in detail.

中国科学院等离子体物理研究所（Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences）研发了一款用于等离子体-壁相互作用（plasma-wall interaction）研究的新型紧凑型级联电弧装置（cascaded arc device）。该装置可在长1.2 m、直径0.1 m的真空室（vacuum chamber）中产生最高0.8 T的磁场以约束等离子体。本紧凑型真空系统在高粒子通量（particle flux）条件下开展了气体流型分析，计算得到的气体压强与实测结果吻合良好。离子通量约为0.5×10²⁴ m⁻²·s⁻¹的连续氩等离子体放电已成功维持超过1小时。研究团队详细探究了磁场位形（magnetic field configuration）、气体流量（gas flow rate）以及放电电弧电流（discharge arc current）对靶面离子通量的影响。