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Vacuum Arc Cathode Spot Characterization on Graphite Materials Using Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscopy (FEGSEM)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

M. Kandah ,
J.-L. Meunier  and
R. Gauvin
M. Kandah
Affiliation:
CRTP, Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, CanadaH3A2A7.
J.-L. Meunier
Affiliation:
CRTP, Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, CanadaH3A2A7.
R. Gauvin
Affiliation:
Département de génie mécanique, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, CanadaJ1K2R1.
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Extract

Vacuum arcs on graphite cathodes are currently used as sources of carbon ions for the production of diamond-like films in the arc ion-plating (AIP) deposition process. Emission from these cathode sources is concentrated in very localized “cathode spots” having typically 10 (i.m in diameter for graphite cathodes. These spots carry the totality of the arc current, the remaining of the surface being unaffected by the discharge. For electron emission falling in the thermo-field emission mode, extremely high current densities up to 108 -109 Am-2 are induced generating a high localized heat flux to the surface during the spot lifetime. On metallic electrodes, this strong heat flux generates localized surface melting during the microsecond scale spot lifetime. High localized plasma pressures (>10 Atm in the case of copper) were found to exist in the cathode spot volume, leading to the co-emission of micro-droplets of the liquid metal along with the ion beam.

Type
Low Voltage Sem Imaging and Analysis for the Biological and Materials Sciences
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 3 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis '97, Microscopy Society of America 55th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 31st Annual Meeting, Histochemical Society 48th Annual Meeting, Cleveland, Ohio, August 10-14, 1997 , August 1997 , pp. 1225 - 1226
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 1997

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References

REFERENCES

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