Generation of Beam-Plasma Formation in a Cylindrical Extended Hollow Grid Anode

Abstract

In this work, we experimentally and numerically investigate a beam-plasma formation in a cylindrical extended hollow grid electron emitter (hollow arc discharge anode) at low (≈ 0.5 Pa) pressure. It has been experimentally shown that the system for generating extended beam-plasma formations in a non-self-sustained glow discharge with a plasma electron emitter based on an arc discharge allows to obtain a longitudinal degree of inhomogeneity of the concentration of the formed plasma over a length of 1 m in a hollow grid anode at a pressure of 0.15 Pa in an argon atmosphere of about ± 25%, and in pure nitrogen ± 40% at absolute values of the ion current density of 1–3 mA/cm 2 . It was shown that the longitudinal heterogeneity of the beam-plasma formation in the hollow anode substantially depends on the parameters of external source of the arc plasma, on the processes of ionization of the working gas and charge exchange of ions in the anode cavity, coming from the plasma of the main glow discharge.